Making A Mini Greenhouse
If you live in a city (well in a particularly built-up city), the chances are that you’ll live in an apartment and having a garden is completely out of the question. This is such a shame for many people, but especially so for those who love to grow their own plants and vegetables. However, just because you live on the 15th floor in a New York apartment block, it doesn’t mean you should be denied the pleasure of nurturing your own plants. It’s entirely possible to build your own mini greenhouse in the apartment, albeit it will be small (and don’t tell your landlord!)
The Gardman Mini Greenhouse
Firstly, just to differentiate: I’m not talking about mini greenhouses such as those by Gardman. These types are similar to regular greenhouses, except (you guessed it) smaller. If you’re interested in these types of greenhouse, I’ll quickly cover the subject before continuing:
They come in various varieties. For example, the 3 tier mini greenhouse is basically a tubular frame made of steel, which contains three shelves for growing your plants and vegetables. Instead of the glass that is often used in traditional greenhouses, a clear PVC material is used to shelter the inside of the greenhouse from the elements. And again, instead of the door in a traditional model, there is a zip-up panel to gain access to the inside. The benefit is clearly the space saving and cost saving over a traditional greenhouse. Gardman also produce a 4 tier mini greenhouse as well as various other products for the space-constrained gardener.
So back to the apartment farming…
To make the apartment greenhouse discussed above, you’ll need to pick up a few strong cardboard boxes, at least 6 inches in depth. You’ll also need some wire coat-hangers or similar, some insulating plastic, and some clear and thin plastic shopping bags.
Take the first box and insulate the inside of it with the thicker plastic. Make sure that the plastic is completely covering the cardboard – we’ll obviously need to water the plants, and if the plastic doesn’t cover the whole of the cardboard, it’ll get wet and start to disintegrate. After this, stick the plastic thoroughly to the cardboard with some tape. You should have previously bought some premium soil from a garden centre – it’s at this point that you can fill the box.
Take a coat-hanger and unwrap it. Then bend it into a U shape. This will then be stuck into one end of the box to support to roof – if it’s too big, carefully use some wire cutters to shorten it. Make two more U shapes of the same size and add one in the middle and one at the other end of the box.
Plant the seeds as per the instructions on their packaging. After this, you should water the seeds (but not so much that you “drown” them, which would prevent them from growing just as much as no water would). Then label the box with what type of plant you have in there.
Finally you’ll need to add the roof. Stretch (but not too tightly) the thin clear plastic across the U shaped supports. Use a staple gun to staple it to the inside of the box at one side, and then “tuck” the other sides into the soil.
And that’s really all there is to it. Simply place the whole thing in sunlight in the apartment and water regularly. You can make as many boxes for as many different plants as you’d like.
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