If I had a Greenhouse......

Pulsegleaner

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(Feel free to sing it, if you want).


If you had a greenhouse (and I mean a BIG greenhouse, like the Palm House at Kew Gardens big, so you could put whole TREES in there if you wanted). What would you grow?

I, of course, have a ton of tropical seeds I'd love to be able to grow. Most of these ARE ones I have purchased, but there are a few odds and ends I have discovered in my seed hunts that might be of interest. Not so much in the bag searches (it's pretty rare, though not unheard of, for tree seeds to make it into those, for the simple reason that comparatively few field crops are grown with trees poking out of the middle of the field. They do it for coffee and/or chocolate, but not for any other major crops I know.) But there have been a few odd fruits I have bumped into that are atypical enough to be worth trying to grow out if I could (Chief of these is a odd looking (unusually whitish) soursop (guanabana) fruit I found in Chinatown, which surprised me because, while it was still tart as a soursop should be, it was also sweet enough to not need the addition of any sugar (which is the usual way to eat soursop fresh) ).

Beyond that, who knows. It'd be nice to have my own Keppel trees, and be able to find out if the fruit really DOES make you smell like violets (at this point in my life, the odds of being able to go to Malaysia and eat the fruit in person there are remote and, despite all of the people who ooh and ahh about it's possibilities, as yet, no groves have been established in places like Florida, California, Hawaii or such were the fruit could enter the general exotic fruit market.)

Growing out my Lard Pumpkins would be fun too (though with at least six vines, each about ninety feet long, even a Kew sized conservatory might not be big enough. But since the seeds are already the size of my palm, and there's supposed to be just under a hundred of them in each fruit on average, those fruits must be enormous, and potentially dangerous if they grow above ground level (which I think they do, they seem to like growing around trees) Banana pumpkins are probably safer (still big but at least those fruit are soft, I think.)

Beyond that, who knows. Dust off my ancient sappan and brazil wood seeds and hope a few of those are still viable? Grow my own ebony? Try my "hand" at Mexican Hand Flower? The sky, (or rather, the literal glass ceiling) is the limit.
 

Zeedman

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Chayote squash
Kiwis
Figs
Pomegranates
Loquats
Yacon
Sword beans
... and enough flowers to support a small bee hive.
 

digitS'

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If I had a large greenhouse with evaporative cooling and large exhaust fans, appropriate Winter heating (geothermal?) with supplemental lighting -- it should probably be semi subterranean so that I wouldn't feel constantly guilty about energy use and I had best be sharing production with others.

Then, I'd be growing those crops with choices that have been shaped by so many years of gardening at 47° N latitude. They would be available year-round :D.

Oh, there should be a fig tree where I can sit in the shade. In fact, a kitchen and picnic table ... hammock :). Meandering paths, crops at all stages of production, of course. Maps so no one is in danger of being lost ... oh, guide dogs and song birds.

Steve
smilieinhamock-gif.42447
 

flowerbug

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i'm with you there @digitS' because around here it would be very expensive to heat and light enough to get much production in the cold and cloudy winter months. if it were big enough i'd have it over the house and then at least you'd not have to also heat the house. would probably have to run a dehumidifier in the warmer months though to keep the stuff in the house from getting mildew or fungal issues.

the other problem i see from such a thing is that you now have created a habitat to overwinter the bugs that used to get killed off by the cold winter season and so what may not have been much of a problem before can then become an issue. quarantines only work as well as the enclosure quality. something like Biosphere II when it was built had a very minimal exchange with the surrounding area but now that has long since changed.

fire ants? crazy ants? ...

what would i grow? sweet potatoes, small citrus trees, bananas, tomatoes, greens of all kinds for all year fresh parsley and cilantro and others too.
 

ducks4you

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You'all are pipe dreaming!! But it's fun!! :love
I Have a small greenhouse, still in it's box. I KNOW that everybody says I should have bought bigger, BUT, I have room and CAN buy a SECOND greenhouse, if I want to.
I will be documenting my build, etc. in the near future.
I do not, DO NOT intend to heat my greenhouse.
 

digitS'

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When I was living in the sticks, I very consciously positioned and built my cabin with a South Window.

It was sufficient, with a plant stand, to populate the tomato and pepper patches with plants. I also grew a few others, like cabbage, which benefited from an early start.

A cold frame, when I finally tried one, was beyond me. It just required too much attention to temperatures on clear mornings. I'd cook the plants in my small cold frame. I tried a larger area that was semi-subterranean and covered with plastic film. That seemed to have the opposite problem because, just about 24" down, our soil is a steady 55° (13°C). It was at 2 levels - half the interior area was at that depth. The other half at about 12". There is where "geothermal" didn't work. Many plants stop growing at 55 and a thin film on freezing Spring nights ... I wasn't showing it enough attention and it couldn't warm up well on cloudy mornings. Some sort of compromise was needed - maybe built on the southside and into a mound of soil ...

Steve
 

ducks4you

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I hear you about the babysitting.
The Biggest thing for me will be the building!
I will record and find numerous ways to hide my blue language, bc I know I will want to use them as I construct.
I want to start plants in my basement on my shelving unit and I hope to move plants outside, initially, a few weeks ahead of time. Seems my tomatoes and peppers A L W A Y S get planted late, and I'd like a better harvest.
Besides that, guess we'll see.
I thought and thought ad nauseum how to build one myself, but I am not a builder, hence the kit.
I also plan to store stuff in it like heated hoses in the summertime, planting soil in bags, while it's still wet and cold and could freeze...stuff like that.
This reminds me that I have a currently unused wooden bookcase, some 4 1/2 ft long that would work well on the south side of it that needs painting in the next few weeks so it can handle being outside.
 

flowerbug

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this house was not built as a winter home. it is completely opposite of what it should be. there is no south window exposure. the ex-step-dad artist built this place to be his summer painting studio and didn't actually plan on keeping it very long. the light in my room is ENE facing patio door and a small window facing NNW. the garage is on the south side.

the utilities are all messed up so that there's no easy way to do anything here with any kind of additions, but i could probably put a small deck outside my patio door, but then why would i do that since i don't use any other sitting places we have outside anyways? i would be much better bringing the garden swing inside than to go outside and sit there... anyways. it's home and some things i'd like to change if i could but as time goes on i'll have less and less energy and enthusiasms for that sort of thing (perhaps i should have written that enthusispasms?)...
 

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