Greenhouse, tunnel, or inspectorate? Decide with us!

Greenhouse, tunnel, or hothouse – what to choose? This question is often asked by gardeners who want to have access to new vegetables without the addition of so-called chemicals. Find out what kind of cover for a vegetable garden to choose?

Do you want to speed up spring and extend the time of autumn vegetable growing? Choose a greenhouse, a hothouse or a plastic tunnel for growing plants. Thanks to them vegetables will be protected from changing weather conditions: rain, hail or frost. Choose such a cover for plants, which will best works well on your plot.

Which cover for a vegetable garden to choose: 4 criteria

What should you consider when you want to choose between a greenhouse, a plastic tunnel and a hothouse? Think about:

➡ Investment costs – how much you want to spend to build protection for your vegetables that will allow them to ripen faster;

➡ The space you can use in your garden or allotment. (remember that a greenhouse or plastic tunnel must not obstruct the crops of other gardeners);

➡ the time you can devote to expanding your vegetable garden on the plot;

➡ the effects you want to achieve and your priorities for your vegetable garden. vegetable garden.

Greenhouse on the plot – advantages:

✅ It's an investment for years that is sure to pay off in the form of access to fresh and healthy vegetables (what's more, by setting up a greenhouse in a sunny place, you can build it into a hothouse and grow, for example, citrus and flowers ornamental flowers).

✅ The greenhouse will survive even very harsh weather conditions if its Steel and wood frame you cover it with good quality material.

✅ In the garden greenhouse, you can control the temperature and humidity of the air. This is important if you want to adjust these factors to the requirements of the plants you are growing. The simplest system to regulate temperature and humidity in the air is to install opening windows in the greenhouse.

Greenhouse in the garden – disadvantages:

✅ The cost of building a greenhouse is large. We have to take into account many stages of its construction: digging the foundation, making the foundation, protecting the greenhouse from moisture and rust, buying a good quality covering, and even a heating.

✅ We need to decide on the right place when it comes to build the greenhouse, because later it will not be possible to move it. The second consequence is the need to naturally fertilize the soil in the greenhouse.

Important: Intensive cultivation of many plant species causes the soil to become sterile. Therefore, it is worth supplementing in it the necessary macro- and micronutrients.  BioGarden for soil fertilization  will strengthen the soil structure and replenish it with necessary humus.

Inspection – advantages:

✅ The inspector is simple to build, and its additional advantage is that it takes up little space in the garden – if your plot is small inspect will work very well. will work very well on it.

✅ To build an inspector you do not need specialized parts: all you need is a frame made of wood, to which you will hinge a glazed closure – you can use for this purpose, for example, old windows.

✅ In a warm inspecting room, we can continue growing plants practically all year. The heat generated by the manure, accelerates the growth and germination of plants.

How to set up a cold-weather hothouse?

We dig up the soil, weed it out of weeds, remove debris such as larger stones, debris. Then we pour on the bottom about 20-25 cm of compost soil or bought gardening soil (it is important that it contains a large amount of humus). In so prepared substrate we sow the seeds of novalis. And we put on them the so-called. inspector's box. Interesting fact: In the inspectorate you can easily and very quickly grow, for example, radishes, lettuce, chives, tomatoes or parsley.

How to set up a warm inspectorate?

A warm hothouse is set up similarly to a cold hothouse. The difference is that after digging and cleaning the soil, we spread a thick layer of manure on the bottom – preferably horse manure (up to 50 cm). Then, after a few days on the layer of manure we spill fresh horticultural soil and sow seeds of newfangled vegetables into it. The inspector should be covered overnight so as to insulate it from external temperatures. You will effectively do this with straw mats. If the day is sunny, it is worth removing this cover, and even ventilate the inspectorate – fresh air air will help your vegetables grow.

Note: Instead of manure, you can use dried chicken manure. Mix it with cut straw 1:4, then wet the whole thing with warm water and leave it until it warms up. doesn't heat up. Only when the mixture increases in temperature, make a layer of it in the inspectorate, 20 to 40 cm thick, and cover everything with a box inspectorate.

Foil tunnel – advantages:

✅ The foil tunnel is lightweight so you can move it to another location without any trouble. place of the garden, if you just find that the existing concept was not optimal.

✅ is easy to assemble, you don't need complicated tools or materials.

✅ with very good results, you can grow heat-loving vegetables in it, such as. such as: peppers, tomatoes or eggplant.

Foil tunnel – disadvantages:

✅ Due to its construction, the tunnel is not very durable – strong precipitation precipitation or winds can damage its structure and even lead to crop loss. to the loss of crops. Most often we can use one tunnel for two seasons; after this time it is worth replacing it with a new one.

✅ In a tunnel you can't control the air temperature – there are tunnels with open sides, but their price is higher. If it is very sunny in the tunnel, there may be unfavorable conditions for plant growth.

Rules for erecting plastic tunnels:

Remember the guidelines for erecting tunnels on the allotment set forth in the Family Allotment Garden Regulations. Here are the most important of them:

➡ The tunnel may not be larger than 20% of the total plot area and have a height of more than 3 m high.

➡ location of tunnels: at least 1 m from neighboring plots, plot boundary and traffic roads;

➡ their construction must be aesthetically pleasing: they must not disfigure the appearance of the surroundings.

Which cover for a vegetable garden to choose: summary

Regardless of the method chosen for growing plants under cover, it is worth thinking about how to replenish minerals in the soil, and thus strengthen our plants. A very good way to fertilize naturally is to prepare your own compost. To be really effective your compost should contain a high amount of micro- and macro-components needed for vegetable growth. It should not It should also contain pathogenic organisms that can destroy the entire crop. Check out Biokomposter bacterial preparation, which in a natural way will increase the efficiency of your fertilizer: the bacteria contained in the preparation will destroy unfavorable microorganisms and speed up the process of composting.