A Greenhouse for Your Home

Given dryness, draftiness and darkness, the interior of your home can be an inhospitable environment for plants. Indoor gardening enthusiasts can compensate beautifully by enhancing their homes with a greenhouse.

Greenhouses can range from a pre-constructed window unit to a do-it-yourself solarium to a room addition to a free-standing structure complete with its own energy system.

Even a small window structure can give you enough space to have year-round blooms—from African violets to begonias.

When choosing a style that's right for you, there are several considerations. Size and cost are probably the overriding factors.

First, pick a size that satisfies your interest without becoming a burden. Too many plants and too little time can ruin the fun. If you start with a small window unit, you can always add another one. If you want a lot of open space, start bigger. You can still add more later.

Look for the area of your house with the most ready-made characteristics: you want warmth, a good light source (although a southerly exposure is not mandatory), and access to water. Growing and maintaining plants indoors means providing humidity, light and as nearly a constant temperature as you can get.

Remember, too, that you want to be able to work with your plants—transplanting when necessary, with easy access for turning, watering and checking for infestation and disease. Select an area that won't conflict with your other home life activities. If you want to see lovely blooms from your favorite chair, it doesn't mean you must have a greenhouse window in your living room--you can simply rotate blooming plants to different rooms, returning them to the greenhouse periodically for "rest and recreation."

Once you've determined location and size, decide who's going to build it. I sthis a do-it-yourself project? Greenhouse window units exist that have pre-cut glazed panels that are sealed and ready for installation for a variety of window sizes. They may even come with directions on what to grow during what time of year.

After all, houseplants are only the beginning. In the fall, summer flowers can be planted in containers and brought inside for weeks of extra blooms. Bulbs can be started from January on, and summer seeds can be started in flats in the spring. If you did choose a southerly window, look for sun-loving flowers, such as the azalea, wax begonia, freesias, flowering maple, gardenia, geranium, lantana and nasturtium, just to name a few. For a shaded window, some varieties to consider are fuchsia, gloxinia, coleus and caladium, for starters. And don't forget herbs, to add a little spice to your life.

Expand your gardening horizons with year-round pleasure no matter what the weather outside.