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The greenhouse effect gets a bad rap in environmental circles, but the effect is not all bad, especially when the effect takes place in a greenhouse. We may despise the infamous effect and what it is doing to our climate, but we can also use the effect to help reduce itself. Building a greenhouse is a green way to grow food in a local and pesticide-free way.
How a Greenhouse Can Help the Environment
A greenhouse will allow you to extend the growing season of your garden. It will also protect your precious produce from harsh weather. If you are blessed with an extreme green thumb and live in a temperate zone, a greenhouse is a great way to squeeze a few extra weeks out of your vegetable garden. Environmentally, the greenhouse can provide you with a plethora of fruits and veggies that you can eat or preserve at your leisure. This homegrown bounty can cut down or eliminate your need to buy vegetables that may be shipped in from the next county, state, time zone or country. It takes a lot of gasoline to move those veggie trucks and fruit planes. A greenhouse will also allow its owner to grow organic, chemical-free food.
A Weed-Free Environment
Controlling the environment inside the greenhouse is a whole heck of a lot easier than trying to get nature to do what you want it to. Weeds will be virtually non-existent inside your greenhouse. And if somehow some lambsquarter or other unwanted weeds get into your potato patch, you can just pull it out by its roots and throw the carcass under a bush or something. (Putting the dead weed in the compost heap may reintroduce its seeds into the greenhouse.)
A Pest-Free Environment
Insects may be a problem. Colonies often hitch rides on plants brought into the greenhouse from the outside. Growing the veggies from seeds is the safest way to avoid an all-out invasion. If you do bring in full-grown plants, you should inspect them for insect infestations first. Use a magnifying glass.
Howstuffworks has this to say about using good insects to control the bad insect population:
Greenhouse pest control can be a natural biological affair. Lady bugs are often used in greenhouses to control destructive bugs like aphids, and tiny wasps are used to combat whitefly infestations. This cuts down on the need for pesticides in the greenhouse. When some commercial greenhouses need plant pollinators, they use bumbleebees instead of hormones.
This post from Planet Green explains how praying mantises can be used as a natural pesticide. Check out this other link for a comprehensive guide to greenhouse insect management.
Water Issues
A greenhouse can be pretty water intensive, especially for folks who live in dry areas like Los Angeles or Phoenix. A greenhouse will naturally recycle a portion of the water that's put into it, but you're going to have to be on the lookout for more water at all times. Rain barrels and grey water systems that filter impurities out of bath, laundry and dishwater should be seriously considered when operating a greenhouse.
Electricity Issues
A truly green greenhouse should be heated by the sun only during those months the sun can sustain it, unless renewable sources of electricity are used, otherwise, the greenhouse isn't really helping the environment, it has merely traded combustion emissions produced by food miles for coal plant emissions created by electricity production.
The Cost of Greenhouses
If you're a deservedly starving artist like myself, a decent greenhouse may be well out of your price range. If you have a good, stable job, a greenhouse isn't as expensive as a hybrid and high-quality kits are cheaper than some pellet stoves. So the financial price of a greenhouse even with upkeep costs isn't outrageous. However, a greenhouse is a time-consuming undertaking and shouldn't be entered lightly. Growing food is a labor-intensive task, but if your heart is as green as your thumb, it might be the right labor of love for you.
More on Gardening:
How to Go Green: Gardening
Grow Your Own Veggies : Gardening Money Vegetables
Bad Vibrations: Avoid this Green Gardening Scam
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