Greenhouse Gardening – location

Location, location, location – getting it right means all the difference in the world to greenhouse success. To determine the very best (and worst) places for a greenhouse on your plot, walk around your garden at about eight in the morning, around noon, again around six pm, making notes of which areas have the most (or any) amounts of sun. To function well, the interior of the greenhouse needs to have at least six hours of sunlight a day, and this minimum time must be met in the winter months as well as the summer ones. Sunlight isn’t just important for the photosynthesis processes in the greenhouse, it also helps keep your heating bills lower. If you have problems with long winters and a north facing garden don’t despair you could always opt for using growing lights in the greenhouse but you’ll have to adjust your budget for this.

Think about placing the greenhouse as close to the home or garage as possible while remaining within range of the maximum sunlight zone. When your greenhouse is close to your house, shed or garage you are more likely to go out there in the middle of winter, but if it’s right at the other end of the garden, and the hail is like bullets or the snowdrifts are knee deep many of us just don’t bother!

You also need to think about trees. Are tree branches, or the tree itself likely to fall on your precious greenhouse, and will leaves drift onto the roof in autumn? Finally, before setting up the greenhouse, check over your homeowners’ insurance policy. If you are using your greenhouse for your personal use, it will almost certainly by the policy – although the contents probably won’t be, so if you have a second hand greenhouse full of rare orchids, take out a separate cover! Find out if you need to inform your insurance agent about your greenhouse so they can list it against the policy too.

Greenhouse gardening location photograph by jspatchwork, used under a creative commons attribution licence