National Greenhouse News

(NORTHGLENN, CO) April 7, 2011 – Congratulations to LIFT – Levántate of San Rafael, California (www.lift-levantate.org), for winning the 2011 Community Garden Greenhouse Give-A-Way Contest. The non-profit organization will receive a free Cultivator Premier Greenhouse Kit for its community garden courtesy of National Greenhouse Co.

Applicants submitted an essay explaining the positive influences their community garden is currently having on volunteers and the community it serves. The essay deadline was February 28th and the winner was announced on March 15th. The contest winner was selected by a panel of management at National Greenhouse Co.

Richard Waxman, Executive Director and Community Advocate for LIFT – Levántate, was thrilled about the news and spoke about the opportunities the Cultivator Premier Greenhouse Kit will create for the community.

“A greenhouse kit will provide a prime teaching venue for us to offer and conduct our afterschool and community education workshops – year-round – on topics such as grafting, seed germination, transplanting, and more.”

LIFT – Levántate’s afterschool program at the Manzanita Child Development Center in Marin City, CA, serves children in grades 2-6 from low-income families and various ethnicities. The program utilizes what is called the “Fun Theory” to help develop physical ability and social and emotional confidence. The program focuses on nutrition, gardening, cooking, physical activity and transferable life skills to encourage positive social, physical and emotional growth. The greenhouse will enhance the program’s current organic garden which makes cooking and nutrition classes possible; and provide work experience for teens and community members to develop peer leadership skills.

National Greenhouse Co. would like to thank all of the applicants who took the time to submit their thoughtful stories; as well as acknowledge all of the proactive communities and volunteers across the nation who work to preserve and better community gardens.

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The cold winter can affect more than our moods and aching backs. Dieting has always been a battle during the winter months, mostly due to the convenience of less healthy, ready-made foods; and the lack of quality seasonal produce at the market that our bodies benefit from in the summer. However, with a lot less effort than most think – you can enjoy the comfort, convenience and health benefits of having produce readily available nearby in your own greenhouse kit.

With some proper attention to detail, a greenhouse kit in the winter can provide all of the benefits and satisfaction of a greenhouse garden in the warm weather. Here are some important tips and facts to consider when growing herbs, fruit and vegetables in the winter with your greenhouse kit:
- Consider an artificial light source to compensate for darker days during the winter months
- Occasionally wipe-down the interior walls of the greenhouse to allow more sunlight in
- Have a back-up heating plan in case your primary source of heat breaks down
- ‘Patience is key’ but consider that if results are not being achieved, you may want to re-work your arrangement(s), heating method or even plant new or different crops
- Research the proper method(s) and time periods to plant certain crops. Lettuce and Spinach, for example, hold true through cooler planting months like January while Tomatoes and Cucumbers are better suited to a late-winter month like April
- Replenish tired soil with composting from the previous summer’s harvest
- Speak with an expert about air ventilation and routinely monitor it

Some of the easiest and more popular vegetables to grow over the winter are: Arugula, Cabbage, Sweet and Hot Peppers, Chives, Broccoli, Garlic, Lettuce and Asparagus. These vegetables, among many others, are able to thrive in cooler settings because the plants do not require much more care than adequate water, modest sunlight, relatively warm temperatures, and good-quality soil. The variety of vegetables and fruit able to grow over the winter in greenhouse kits still require individual maintenance needs, yet boast well for success if properly attended to.

There are incredible communities of gardeners out there who are just like you! Share ideas on how to make the most of your greenhouse kit over the winter. Discuss tips and strategies for achieving better crop results with local experts and connect with others over social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter.

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Cultivating rare plants is a rewarding activity that has a number of personal and environmental benefits. Aside from the enlightening task of caring for plants, growing certain species can help to keep them off endangered plant lists. With a home greenhouse kit, gardeners can admire the beauty of rare colours and shapes while playing a part in conservation and biodiversity.

In order to properly care for plants foreign to your greenhouse kit environment, you must research and simulate the native growing conditions of those respective species. Temperature, light, air ventilation, maintenance and proximity in relation to other plants are important factors that influence the health abundance. Remember that specific types of plants cannot properly adapt to conventional soil mixtures and instead require solutions like 3-part soil to 1-part sand and peat. More commonly, tropical plants will only flourish in soft soil beds.

Ferns, Begonias and Orchids are just some of the easily accessible tropical seeds available at your local greenhouse supply depot. Popular Ferns such as: Maidenhair, Staghorn and Boston thrive in humid, low-lit conditions. Begonias, native to South America, Africa and Asia will spoil you with year-round blossoms if they are properly nourished in shaded areas. Orchids are delicate and need frequent ‘misting’ to sustain health; humidity trays are an excellent method to help ensure this.

Palms, Bamboos, Jasmine, Hibiscus Flower, Lantanas, Gardenia, Ginger and Citrus Plants are able to sustain with relatively low maintenance in less favourable conditions. These are some plants that a less-skilled (yet no lack in passion) gardener can achieve great results with. A great tip to help boost the results of your winter garden is to seal-off any unused area of your greenhouse kit. This will help you more accurately control variables such as heat, ventilation and moisture.

Above all, when considering tropical and rare plants in your greenhouse kit plans, it is important to conduct research and understand the needs of the individual plants. Cater your greenhouse kit environment to properly suit the needs of your rare and tropical plants. Investigate local botanical policies and speak with local gardeners about rare and tropical plant sustainability and cultivation. Connect with other passionate gardeners in your area and share ideas on how to better enjoy your gardening experience.

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You still have time! We’ve decided to extend our deadline for entries into the 2011 Community Garden Greenhouse Give-A-Way Contest!

If you are part of a community garden and still want to enter for your chance to win a Cultivator Premier Greenhouse Kit you can now enter your application until February 28, 2011 at midnight! Our winner will be announced on March 15th after we have had time to review all the fantastic applications we have received.

It is great to see that so many communities across the country are promoting healthy lifestyles and educating people of all ages through the power of gardening. Don’t miss out on this great opportunity to add a new greenhouse kit to your community garden; allowing all of those involved the chance to garden year round!

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The deadline is quickly approaching to get your entries into our 2011 Community Garden Greenhouse Give-A-Way Contest! Don’t delay you don’t want to miss out on getting your entry in. We’ve received lots of submissions so far and from everything we’ve read people are really putting some heart and soul into building strong educational community gardens throughout the country!

Remember we’re giving away one cultivator premier greenhouse kit for full details and the entry form follow this link: Community Garden Greenhouse Give-A-Way Contest

DON’T DELAY! CONTEST ENTRIES MUST BE SUBMITTED BY 11:59pm (PST) ON FEBRUARY 15, 2011!

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While a new greenhouse kit can add curb appeal through a stylish freestanding greenhouse or lean-to greenhouse model and theoretically increase your property value, that’s not what this article is about. This article is about those intangibles that are created when you add a hobby greenhouse to your property and help turn it from a house into a home.

Quality Time with the Family

By adding a greenhouse to your home you create an environment that lets you partake in family activities throughout the year. You can create a fun and interactive learning environment for children and teens which enables you to teach them how to grow and take care of a wide variety of plants. The quality time you spend together can’t be quantified in the numbers of hours spent together but rather the lasting memories it will create. Plus you get to have some fun results, especially if you plant fruits or vegetables. Once you’ve grown your crops you can take the fun into the kitchen and use the homegrown produce to cook and bake any number of things. The time spent together in your hobby greenhouse is priceless.

Quality Time Away From the Family

While this seems to be counterproductive to the first reason, it’s also a great reason. With the stresses of family life and running from school to work to event after event it can get hectic. Sometimes, you just need to get away from it all and relax. Gardening in your home greenhouse provides the escape you need, even if only for a few minutes of the day. Take a break, water the plants, breathe in the aromatic smells and then head back into the wonderful chaos of family life.

Learn New Skills for Little to No Cost

Adding a greenhouse kit to your house will have the obvious initial upfront costs but after that you can learn new skills at your own pace whether it’s trying to grow a tropical plant, growing those Christmas Poinsettia’s or growing your own strawberries to make homemade jams. There are so many new options to try with a greenhouse from baking and cooking, to making your own flower arrangements, to creating dried flowers for scrap booking. Most of the time the cost for you is only a pack of seeds, some water and a little bit of time but the skills learned become a source of personal pride.

Cut Down On Grocery Bills

This has been mentioned in our previous articles but it is a very valuable point to mention. When you add a home greenhouse kit to your home, you provide yourself with a great option to grow your own fruits and vegetables. It’s the freshest produce you can get and you can do it completely organic. A pack of seeds is all it takes and you’ll no longer have to spend a fortune at the grocery store on overpriced fruits and vegetables, meaning you’ll have more money to put away for that family vacation or new basement renovation.

Ultimately, adding a greenhouse kit to your house will help to quickly turn it into a home, leaving you and your family a number of fun new activities to take on without ever leaving the comfort of the house. Now that’s what we like to call real value.

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Gardening is one of those activities that is great for a person with a green thumb and those who want a fun and exciting hobby to pass the time; but that doesn’t mean you have to toil away alone at it. Gardening is a great way to meet new people and create a fantastic way to spend time and see positive results.

Communities all across the United States have developed gardens that are run and maintained by volunteers. They can be a small garden in an apartment complex or a large garden in a public park, size doesn’t matter, it’s all about the message they send. A community garden’s message is different from community to community but ultimately renowned scholar, Marshal McLuhan, said it best; “The medium is the message,” and in this case that medium is gardening. Gardening can help guide at-risk youth stay out of trouble, provide seniors with a hobby that keeps them active, and help teenagers and adults become teachers and learn in a practical hands-on environment all while building a positive centerpiece that communities can take pride in.

While scholars sit and debate that famous quote, that’s not what this article is about. We want to put the focus on how community gardens aid in building strong communities and how a greenhouse kit can help those gardens operate year round. Community gardens are an excellent addition to any community.

A community garden provides a place for hands-on education for people of all ages and helps to establish leaders and teachers. Community gardens are often found, but not limited to, lower income neighborhoods where children may be at a higher risk for dangerous behaviors. In the garden they can learn not only horticulture skills but life skills including healthy nutritional habits, teamwork, responsibility and finally practical skills; as they can be taught cooking skills using the fresh produce being grown in the garden.

While some states have a year round outdoor growing season that is not true for all the states and that is where a greenhouse kit becomes so valuable. If at-risk youth are able to continue maintaining the garden inside even a small hobby greenhouse, they will continue to learn and help them avoid those high-risk situations that they may otherwise find themselves in.

Greenhouse kits are often very affordable and are a great way to increase the attractiveness of the garden and the surrounding community. A hobby greenhouse kit is a great focal point for the garden and can help increase the sense of pride and accomplishment of the volunteers who have worked hard to create a welcome and inviting place for anyone to enjoy.

There is also the secondary benefit of the produce that is grown in community gardens. Often that produce is sold at local markets to help raise funds for new projects in the garden, or it is used to teach the garden volunteers how to cook and utilize fresh produce, or donated to local shelters to help feed those in need.  A community garden not only provides an entertaining hobby to those who participate in it but often times helps those in need by helping them to establish new skills or through the donation of produce grown. Adding a greenhouse kit to the mix will help to ensure that the pride, skills and donations can continue to grow, learn and contribute every month of the year.

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National Greenhouse Co. is proud to announce that it will be donating one Cultivator Premier Greenhouse Kit to a deserving community garden for its 2011 Community Garden Greenhouse Give-A-Way Contest. All communities across the United States are encouraged to enter the contest.

Starting in January 2011, entrants will be required to fill out an application explaining the story behind their community garden, the community it serves, any extraordinary volunteers and why the community garden is deserving of a new Cultivator Premier Greenhouse Kit. Applications will be accepted until 11:59am (PST) on February 15, 2011.

The winner of the Community Garden Greenhouse Give-A-Way Contest will be announced on March 1, 2011 on the National Greenhouse Co. website. The winning community will receive one (1) Cultivator Premier Greenhouse Kit and have an article written highlighting the positive effect the community greenhouse garden is having on their community. It will be featured on the National Greenhouse Co. website.

According to Andrew Gillespie at National Greenhouse Co., “This Community Garden Greenhouse Give-A-Way Contest is a great way for us to acknowledge those who selflessly serve their communities; by promoting a positive message and attitude utilizing gardening as a tool in that endeavor these people help to bring together communities. We hope that this will help to inspire other people and communities to follow the same path and create vibrant communities all across this country.”

For complete details and entry form please visit:
http://www.nationalgreenhouse.com/community-garden-greenhouse-kit-giveaway.php

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The right greenhouse can make it possible to grow most things in almost any climate. Even if you live in an extremely hot and dry part of the world or in a cool and wet location, a greenhouse is able to provide the protection you need to create perfect growing conditions for almost any plant.

There are many benefits of having your own hobby greenhouse but you need to do some planning when you decide to start your project. Here are several things you should consider when setting up
your own hobby greenhouse kit:

Size and Available Space:
Greenhouse kits can be designed to fit almost any space, big or small. If you have room for a garden than you easily have room for your own greenhouse. There’s also a variety of different styles from freestanding to lean-to’s that make it possible to have a greenhouse in almost any
situation.

Time:
A hobby greenhouse creates the opportunity to spend as much or as little time as you like with your garden. You no longer need to worry about constant weeding or having to protect your plants from
invasive creatures. If you’d rather spend time in the garden than the grocery store a greenhouse might be a great fit.

Budget:
Getting started with your own hobby greenhouse costs less than you might think. With a quality plan in place you should be able to begin growing your fruits and vegetables while staying on budget. In the long-run it is possible to save money with a greenhouse since you will be growing your own fruits and vegetables. A package of seeds is usually far cheaper than buying that same vegetable or fruit in a grocery store.

Types of Plants:
Nearly any plant can be grown in a greenhouse, however some thought needs to be put into what types of plants you hope to grow. When you have decided on the type of garden you want, a greenhouse will allow you to control the environment to provide ideal growing conditions for your plants. Doing some research before hand will ensure that you know how to effectively use your greenhouse and create optimal growing conditions.

Accessories:
It is a good idea to become familiar with greenhouse accessories before you get started. The more you know about climate control, watering devices, temperature control and basic gardening tools
the more likely it is that you will be able to stay on budget.

Once you have setup your hobby greenhouse, most of your work is done. When your garden becomes established, you don’t have to worry about environmental elements such as drought, too much precipitation, frost or snow. Greenhouses protect your plants from pests such as deer, rabbits, raccoons, or insects and can completely eliminate any weeds from choking out your delicate plants.

If you research, plan and design accordingly, your hobby greenhouse garden will be more productive and require very little maintenance. A greenhouse allows for experimentation with various fruits and vegetables and allows you to express the joy you receive from gardening all year long.

For further information: www.nationalgreenhouse.com
Contact: andrewg@nexuscorp.com
Phone: (800) 303-1543 ext.533

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Having a hobby greenhouse is a wonderful way to grow your own flowers, vegetables, herbs and fruits and is rapidly becoming a popular hobby throughout the world. For many people, the most important part of having your own greenhouse is knowing exactly what has gone into the plants. Everything you grow can be completely organic and fresher than anything you get at a grocery store. A greenhouse creates peace of mind, allowing the gardener to experiment with various growing techniques or grow unusual and sometimes exotic plants.

Another wonderful perk about setting up your own greenhouse kit is the ability to extend your growing season. You are able to have plant growth start weeks or sometimes months ahead of schedule and you also extend the growing season late into the fall or winter months. Imagine eating perfectly ripened tomatoes in February or enjoying a completely fresh salad in December. With a greenhouse you no longer have to worry about missing the growing window for certain fruits and
vegetables.

Greenhouses protect your plants from the harsh elements that Mother Nature creates. Delicate flowers or tender greens can be ruined by an early or late frost. Tomatoes, beans or other vegetables can easily be uprooted by strong winds. Tender herbs and salads can easily be
damaged by heavy rain or too much moisture. Greenhouse kits provide protection for all of your plants of any type and size.

No matter what type of plants you choose to grow, having your own greenhouse kit is a wonderful way to express yourself. Time seems to melt away as you cultivate and harvest your plants. Gardeners love the thought of being able to work on their own garden during the middle of the winter or not worry about weeding the garden during the warmer summer months. A hobby greenhouse kit is very affordable and can be setup with ease in nearly any location.

Growing your plants in a greenhouse is rapidly becoming one of the more popular hobbies in the United States and you too can experience the joy of gardening every month of the year.

For further information: www.nationalgreenhouse.com
Contact: andrewg@nexuscorp.com
Phone. (800) 303-1543 ext.533

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