Growing in a greenhouse for beginners 

One of my greatest joys is in January when the wind is blowing, the rain or snow is pelting, but enough sun to keep it very comfortable, and I take a book out there with my two cats, who absolutely love it.

Keeping the mess out of the home is worth the cost!!

If you seal up the green house making it as air tight as possible with small vents at the top and put black stones on the walkways of the green house it'll absorb and radiate heat passively. That and minimal insulation on the wood would really help.

Even in winter, plants inside the greenhouse are protected from wind. The outside plants can be robbed of their heat through windchill factor.

I feel exactly the same way with my greenhouse, its definitely my "happy place"

I have been looking online at Yoder greenhouses. I’m in Arkansas too and these are built in Arkansas. I absolutely love them. Hubby already said “ go for it”. I just might!

This was good info, I am preparing to build myself a greenhouse and I totally loved all of your tips

Thank you for this good basic information. Having just bought a large greenhouse and having no experience in using it, I found what you said was very helpful! Tony Haighway Shropshire, England.

I'm starting my first season doing this and got my greenhouse set up. I discovered a lot of the same stuff as you, it heats up very quickly and cools down just as fast once the sun goes down. My seedlings are still very small. I'm still learning.

You’re so right that it is really hard to find info on greenhouse growing. My environment is extremely cold and I can’t even grow tomatoes at all, in the summer, without one. Consequently, I have a very well-insulated five-wall polycarb greenhouse but with intensity of the sunlight here it can get to 90 when it’s 20 outside, even with automatic vents. And yet I still heat it with thermal mass AND cover the crops right now with a hoop house & a blanket- inside the greenhouse! With all the differences between climates and types of greenhouses, I think gardeners just have to adapt what they can glean from multiple sources. It takes a huge amount of trial and error. But I love it. With three feet of snow on the ground I don’t think I could tolerate the weather otherwise.

Thanks for the info. Im in zone 5a and recently acquired a free small(6x8) greenhouse. I’m trying to learn fro others on what to expect and your tips were useful.

Thank you for your videos I am also from zone 7B and new to growing plants since finding your channel my yields and knowledge are improving.

Good info and tips, just build one. Thanks

Greetings from West Cork, Ireland, from a Sheehy to a McSheehy. Our ancestors probably knew each other! I've got a sunroom that I'm using as a greenhouse and it allows me to have a continuous supply of salad greens growing in pots for most of the year. In the wintertime and early spring, it's fantastic to be able to watch plants growing when it's wet or blowing a gale outside. This year I started in mid-February and I'll probably try using grow lights for the winter just like you suggest. Great channel, by the way.

Have you tried using maybe a solar powered fan in your green house? It will make ur seedlings stronger, will help with air flow and might hold down any excessive humidity

Thank you I live in Ky. Been doing it in basement for years just recently purchased a greenhouse and retired. Excited.

Great video. I retired in Nov. 21 and the first project I completed was building my greenhouse. I wish I could have done it years ago. Very informative video.

Thank you SO much for putting out this video! I have a small heated greenhouse and have really struggled with the best way to use it. Similar to your observations, despite it being heated, the temperatures still swing VERY widely from as low as 36 degrees at night (outdoor night temp 15 degrees) to as high as 80 degrees during the day (even with shades up and outside temp at 30 degrees) - this temp swing is all within one day. Given these wide swings, I also have found it best to germinate seedlings indoors and then bring them into the green house once they are big enough. I also didn't know about hardening off going into the greenhouse so ended up killing a bunch of warm seasonseedlings last year! I found I didn't really need to harden off the cool season plants and I'm thinking this is because the sun is much lower and less intense throughout the winter season when I am sowing things like onions. I am intrigued by your grow light experience -- I wasn't sure so I had left the grow lights on all the time but I think I'll be trying what you suggested in your video and only supplementing. I would love to know how you figure out when to turn them on? Is it just when the sun goes down until about 10pm or so?

Thanks! I moved to a small house (built for me!) Behind my daughter's last fall, and brought about 70 plants from across town (McMinnville, Oregon 8b) had the tender plants in the garage last year, on my son-in law's workbench 😂 He told me he'd assemble a greenhouse if i got one, so i ordered a kit 6x8' - and he pit it up this fall! I had him tuck it with his shed on the N, and a fence on the S so it's more protected, and brought my little bistro table and one chair in, plus those tender herbs, a citrus and perennials. I am looking forward to some of the things you've mentioned!

Thank you SO much!!! We are working on restoring an old greenhouse we built over 20 years ago and never really used it the way it's supposed to be used. It is 15 x 30. I want to use it the way you are using yours. I want the first 3rd of it on seed prep area as well as tables to put my seeds on after I get them started if it is warm enough. We are planning on getting a wood stove to heat ours when we need it. We are also going to make some raised beds for some things like Ginger and other things. As soon as we get this one finished, (hopefully by the end of next week!!! fingers crossed), we are going to put up a much larger greenhouse to grow a lot of our regular garden vegetables. My goal in the up coming years is to grow enough plants to sell a lot of them at farmers markets. I am super excited to use them both and learn as well. I really appreciate your video. It helped out a lot!! Thanks again! Oh PS. We live in Eastern Oklahoma, about 1 1/2 away from Fort Smith, Arkansas. Arkansas is such a beautiful state!

The only place I could fit my glasshouse was under a large deciduous tree - not ideal I thought, but actually it is great. My glasshouse never gets too hot and although it cuts the light down a bit, I can still ripen tomatoes etc. I keep the vents open all the time and only close the doors if it’s really windy. I never heat it, Monty Don calls it a cold greenhouse, which put it all in perspective for me. I grow all my seeds in my little shed next door with grow lights and a heating pad

Thank you for the information. I have a vine plant(lily) and i had her in the greenhouse for about an hour and i went to check on her.... her beautiful leaves were drooping and she looks like shes gonna pass. We're getting ready to put my seeds in the greenhouse i pray we get great results. We started with a small greenhouse, but big enough for tomatoes carrots, lettuce, zucchini i want to get strawberry seeds too. Please pray that my plants will flourishing with beautiful healthy food.

Great information. Thanks so much. I have a simple cattle panel greenhouse and I grow in it all summer long. I am zone 6a. Although it does heats up in the summer I have full size doors on both ends and roll up sides. With all that ventilation I grow tomatoes, peppers, green beans and the like all summer long with great success. It makes a huge difference growing them in greenhouse because I can start them earlier in the spring, grow all summer long, and then have more produce well into the fall where otherwise I would not. I would love to have your greenhouse. Beautiful, but I bet if you could rig a door on the other end and open up your sides your greenhouse would be great for plants all summer.

Hi Jill, So much valuable information, thankyou! I’m somewhat of a beginner myself. What I’d like to know is when to start seedlings for peppers, tomatoes, flowers, etc.. I live in Nebraska. 🌽🥦🍅🐮🐷

Ty for this. We built a high tunnel and let me tell you…. It’s just a hot mess. Ready to just tear it down and walk away 😢.

Do you have a video about making your own potting mix? I searched for it but can’t find one?

Hi I’m here in central Arkansas as well - Vilonia. And also have a Yoderbilt greenhouse! Where are you located ?

I’m interested in a Yoder GH. I live in SW Missouri; do you think a shade cloth during the summer would help with heat? Thanks for this information. 👩‍🌾

greenhouse price is quite high. For that much money I could buy vegetables starts for 10 years