How I Manage My Greenhouse To Ensure It Remains Profitable

Even a fairly large greenhouse can be profitable within a reasonable amount of time. I'm speaking about the very greenhouse, which I, myself, own.

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It took me only 9 short months for my greenhouse to produce enough profit to cover all expenses involved with construction and maintenance.

The size of my greenhouse is 12 feet. Not to mention, it also has a workroom annex located within it. This article will help give you the significant details of how I built it, but more importantly, how I conduct my successful day to day operations of the greenhouse. As a matter of fact, my greenhouse has been such a success; I expanded it to 24 feet within 4 years. And I will tell you something about some other successful ventures which will give you still more ideas about building and operating your own greenhouse.

If you think the cost of a 12 foot greenhouse is out of reach, think again. The total cost of construction for my 12 foot greenhouse, including the professional labour hired to build it, was only $900, including the nice workspace annex. If you think it took a long time to build, think again. Total construction time was only 3 weeks. In fact, here's something to give you some food for thought; the foundation of the greenhouse was put down on May first and we were using it for plants by May twenty first.

My greenhouse is actually attached to my house. Within this attachment is an 11 foot wide by 552 foot long annex workroom, which was previously mentioned. The greenhouse measures 9 feet wide by 12 feet long. I planned ahead, by constructing it in such a way to allow for future expansion, if the need arose.

By planning for an expansion, I purchased a heating system which was much bigger and more expensive than what this size greenhouse called for. Because I did eventually double the size of the greenhouse, I have since put this heating system to full use.

I had it constructed so that it sits on the west side of the house. The long sides are north and south facing. I like to put a variety of plants inside my greenhouse. Some of the plants I grow prefer to be in the sun.

Other plants I grow prefer to be either in full or partial shade. The sun loving plants are put on the south side of the greenhouse. Even though the types of plants I grow have different preferences when it comes to sun and shade, they all do well in temperatures of 70 to 75 degrees F during the day. The temperature at night drops down with a range of 60 to 65 degrees F. It truly is awe inspiring to think about all the different types of plants that can live, grow, and thrive harmoniously under one greenhouse roof.

Building My Greenhouse

All buildings in northern zones must have footings (foundation extensions) which extend below the frost line. Greenhouses are no exception. In my area, footings must be dug to a depth of 3½ feet so frost will not heave the foundation and crack the greenhouse glass.