Greenhouse Gardening
Planting Options
Greenhouse
Bed Gardening
Soil-filled
greenhouse beds, near ground level or raised to 24 inches, are
ideal for creating indoor planting habitats. Since beds (particularly
raised) typically contain more soil than containers do, they
promote good root growth.
The soil also provides thermal mass that retains some of the heat
captured during the day. One disadvantage of using beds is that if
you do have a problem with soil-borne fungi or other pests, you may
have to dump an entire batch of soil to remedy the problem.
"We like to emphasize
cycles," says Anza Muenchow, the garden coordinator
at Columbia's Orca program in Seattle,
WA. "Seasonal cycles, the life cycles of insects,
the decomposition of organic matter, and the cycle of
a seed to a plant to a seed again."
|
You can construct greenhouse beds from wood, bricks, stone, or recycled
materials. Don't use pressure-treated wood or most wood treatments,
since they often contain substances that can harm plants. Use either
untreated hardwood or wood treated with a plant-safe preservative
containing copper napthenate. If the beds will be accessible only
from one side, build them no wider than 2 1/2 feet. They can be somewhat
larger if students will be accessing them from two sides.
Container Gardening
If you're growing in containers, conventional plant pots or recycled
materials like cardboard milk cartons or yogurt containers will do
the job, as long as you put holes in the bottom for drainage.
Unglazed
clay pots are good because they're porous; however, they are heavy and breakable.
Plastic pots, on the other hand, are lighter and easy to clean, but can
be more easily over-watered.
Clean containers well to avoid pest and disease problems. Soak them
for 1 hour in a solution of 1 part chlorine bleach to 9 parts water,
or use warm soapy water.
Be sure that the container size is appropriate for the plant you're
growing. A vegetable plant in a pot that's too small for it
will be stressed and susceptible to attack by disease organisms
and pests. On the other hand, a plant in a pot that's too
large will also grow poorly, because it may get over-watered.
-lo.jpg)
