A Hobby Greenhouse Will Get You Growing!
For people who would like to do more gardening but live in a

 short growing 

season area, a hobby greenhouse is the answer.  A hobby

 greenhouse is not 

large enough to produce vegetables or flowers on a

 commercial basis.  It 

will, however, give you a place for a tomato plant or

 two and some fresh 

greens even if you live in the northern regions. 

Greenhouse enthusiasts 

even have their own association, called the Hobby

 Greenhouse Association,

 which publishes a quarterly magazine.  The organization

 also sponsers 

events and helps individuals connect to get help with the 

aspect of 

gardening that they are interested in, whether it's growing 

cacti or saving seeds.

If you are in the market for a hobby greenhouse, there

 are several 

types on the market.  The smallest type is not large

 enough to walk 

into and must be accessed from the outside. 

 It resembles an

 old-fashioned phone booth made all of glass

and outfitted with shelves.

 This type is designed to fit as many plants as 

possible in as small a

 place as possible.  The shelves are made of glass 

to allow as much light

 as possible to reach plants on the lower shelves.

 Another inexpensive

 version of this sort of hobby greenhouse is shelving

 covered with a

 zippered tent of clear plastic.  This sort of arrangement

 is great for the

 small-scale hobby gardener wanting a place to keep her

 flowers or houseplant starts.

There are a variety of designs of hobby greenhouse

 that are large enough to walk

 into but made entirely of clear glass or plastic.  They are 

often about the 

same size as a small storage building.  Some independent builders

 have started 

making these to sell locally.  Among national brands, one of 

the nicest is called 

the "Solar Prism."  It is called this because of it's unique

 construction. 

This hobby greenhouse is made of a single piece of durable 

clear plastic which 

is designed to work like tiny prisms side by side.  They

 trap the rays of the 

sun and shoot them back into the greenhouse at all angles.

 For this reason, 

these little  greenhouses are said to glow when the

 weather is cloudy.

Better hobby greenhouses are equipped with automatic 

sensors that open vents 

which allow ventilation and keep the interior temperatures

 from getting too high.

 These are a great labor saver, but can get expensive.  Another

 benefit sometimes

 found in nicer greenhouses is a built in irrigation or misting

 system.

 Members of the Hobby Greenhouse Association, or HGA, have 

invented many interesting 

designs of greenhouses.

If gardening is your hobby, greenhouse growing will 

interest you.  With a greenhouse,

 you can have the earliest tomatoes and salad greens all 

year.  You can also start

 seedlings for the main garden early in the spring when 

outdoor temperatures would

 kill them.  A hobby greenhouse can be a good investment.