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Saturday, March 30, 2002
Greenhouse gardening Simulated climate, year-round propagation attract dedicated few SARAH JACKSON, THE OLYMPIAN Originally published Saturday, March 30, 2002
THURSTON COUNTY -- Early on, Ron Casebier was fascinated by plants -- how they could grow so quickly, even overnight.
When he was a boy growing up in Bremerton, he made a point of popping outside every morning -- first thing.
"I would make my rounds and see how things had grown," Casebier said. "I'd go out and check all the plants."
Since then Casebier's passion hasn't died -- and the number of plants under his care these days has grown.
Sure, retirement brings the luxury of a little more gardening time, but for years Casebier has had a special place to check plant progress daily: his 20-foot-by-10-foot greenhouse.
While spring has been slow going so far this year, greenhouse gardeners aren't limited by such external trivialities -- at least not when they're inside their protected growing getaways.
Casebier plays nonstop -- mostly with flowering plants -- in his greenhouse all year.
"I use it all the time," Casebier said. "There's never enough room."
Garden-to-be
Greenhouse gardeners can extend the Northwest growing season by getting seeds started in the cool, rainy spring -- inside, under lights.
Greenhouse gardener and Master Gardener Diane Skov of Olympia said dedicated gardeners will delight in greenhouses -- yet another tool in the arsenal of gardening gear.
"You have a warm, friendly, vibrant space in which to putter and plan your gardens-to-be," Skov said. "You have a safe place to overwinter sensitive plants out of the elements. You can grow as many of a plant as you wish for special projects -- and much less expensively than buying them already started."
Plus gardeners can experiment with seeds and cuttings to fulfill "creative interests," Diane said, and they can grow food and flowers that wouldn't ordinarily grow in South Sound because of the relatively short growing season.
However, greenhouses can cost thousands of dollars to buy or build, and they require regular maintenance and attention.
Truly committed greenhouse gardeners can raise flowers and veggies all winter long -- provided they can afford to heat their greenhouse during the cold months.
Gardeners can start tomatoes as early as January along with other hot-weather crops such as peppers and eggplant.
And that doesn't include all the exotic flowers that can survive in warm conditions -- from orchids to splendid South African flowers.
Flowers, foliage
Breathing the air inside Casebier's greenhouse feels like inhaling pure summer -- and when the sun shines directly onto the greenhouse, it warms quickly with the light.
Casebier cultivates and cares for numerous plants including amaryllis -- with enormous red blooms -- orchid, cyclamen and a veltheimia, another South African native, with its clusters of trumpetlike purple-pink flowers in the shape of a fountain.
Casebier also boasts a long-lived clivia, another South African beauty in the amaryllis family.
"This is chocolate mint," Casebier said, standing inside his greenhouse, made with a treated fir frame and Thermopane glass accented with arching windows on each end to match the house. "There's a lot of variety in here, actually."
Tiny bacopa flowers cascade from hanging baskets. Primroses -- all grown from seed -- offer color and cuteness.
Perhaps most important, Casebier harbors nearly 10 varieties of geranium.
Fragrant, fuzzy, glorious geraniums -- made from cuttings in the fall, like many of the plants in Casebier's greenhouse -- will be eager to take root around the front drive by early May.
"They'll be ready to set out and they'll be blooming size," Casebier said. "I give a lot of them away, too."
Varieties such as Martha Washington and Bird's Foot already bear beautiful flowers.
But this is just a snapshot of Casebier's year-round gardening.
"Later on," Casebier said, "I'll try to grow about 60 to 70 begonias and they'll get planted out front. You can't do those in the winter. But once they start blooming, they'll bloom their heads off for you."
Casebier's outdoor garden displays many plants nurtured from seed or cuttings in his greenhouse. They grow so well because the greenhouse is equipped with a reverse thermostat, fans, a heated garden bed and fluorescent lights, which reportedly work as well as more expensive "grow lights."
Camellias, heaths and heathers and many other plants raised from seeds or cuttings have played a major role in landscaping the Casebiers' yard.
Soon greenhouse-propagated heath and heather will replace ivy Casebier once used for a groundcover east of the house.
"They grow pretty fast," Casebier said. "I like to see them do their thing."
Greenhouse gardening also helps Casebier keep rare varieties alive, such as a special type of salvia, a member of the mint family he found through mail-order.
Casebier might not be able to keep the pretty plant year after year if he couldn't take cuttings each fall to grow in his greenhouse.
"This way, I can have it every year," Casebier said. "It will grow to at least 6 feet and will bloom late in the year."
Casebier spends four to six hours a week in the greenhouse in the winter and up to 10 hours a week in the spring.
"When it's raining outside you can go in the greenhouse and work and it's no big deal," Casebier, a Master Gardener, said. "I like to hear the rain on the roof. Greenhouse gardening is always moving things around, rearranging, creating space for what's coming."
Casebier's wife, Janelle, describes her husband's relationship with his custom-built greenhouse as symbiotic. He puts on the radio and plays with plants.
"He doesn't even notice it's time for dinner or anything," she said. "It's therapy."
Temperature, pests
Casebier keeps his greenhouse no cooler than 55 degrees in the winter and no warmer than 80 degrees in the summer.
With spring weather warming, you'll find Casebier opening windows and the greenhouse door when the plants are ready to be hardened off by the slightly cooler air.
Controlling the greenhouse's temperature is key to successful growing. Highs inside a greenhouse can reach well over 100 degrees in minutes.
With one false move or malfunction, an overheated greenhouse could mean death to everything inside -- if left unchecked.
"Then you will lose everything. You are through," Casebier said. "The problem is more in the summer. You do have to be in here watering every day."
Casebier said maintaining, cooling, heating and lighting a greenhouse may offset any major plant-propagation savings, meaning greenhouse gardening might not be for everyone.
"You have to enjoy it or it's silly," he said. "If you think it's going to be an inexpensive thing to do plants in, that's silly too," Casebier said. "It's kind of a romantic idea for a lot of people to have a greenhouse."
Many greenhouse gardeners lose ambition, ultimately leaving their garden playhouses empty.
Casebier recommends starting with cloche gardening or cold frames -- both smaller-scale systems.
While those systems don't allow walk-in access, they can employ similar technologies and offer a comparable greenhouse effect.
Skov said having a greenhouse can be a little like having a boat -- both a demanding and rewarding endeavor.
Plants in greenhouses, Skov said, need to be checked daily unless gardeners have a dependable, even elaborate, system for watering, heating and cooling. Pests -- ranging from mice to tiny insects -- can create unique gardening problems, too.
Greenhouse gardener Bob Degler of Yelm said he commonly fights white flies in his greenhouse, attached to his house and swimming pool.
Veggies
Degler's greenhouse of polycarbonate plastic and heavy duty aluminum already contains tomato and lettuce plants -- giving him a major jumpstart on the veggie-growing season.
Degler also will raise some tomatoes in his greenhouse all summer to avoid the possibility of late blight, common in the Northwest.
"There's nothing like -- on a dark and rainy day -- going into your greenhouse and seeing things growing," Degler said, adding that he likes the control of raising his own cuttings and seedlings.
"This is the biggest advantage of a greenhouse: You can do it organically and that's a very good thing because you don't know what you're getting from a commercial market."
Master Gardener Cindy Fairbrook said greenhouses offer a unique extension of the joy of gardening.
"I have had a tender lavender blooming for most of the winter, and now I have a beautiful auricula that delights my soul every time I go out to check things," Fairbrook said. "There is always something magical about going out to the greenhouse and discovering something like that.
"But that is the wonder of gardening in general."
Sarah Jackson writes for The Olympian and can be reached at 360-704-6871 or sajackso@olympia.gannett.com.
- "Greenhouse Gardener's Companion: Growing Food and Flowers in Your Greenhouse or Sunspace" by Shane Smith (Fulcrum Publishing, 2000)
- "The Greenhouse Expert" by D.G. Hessayon (Sterling Publications, 1994)
- "Gardening Under Cover: A Northwest Guide to Solar Greenhouses, Cold Frames, and Cloches" by William Head (Sasquatch Books, 1989)
- "Growing Vegetables West of the Cascades: The Complete Guide to Natural Gardening" by Steve Solomon (Sasquatch Books, 2000)
- "Gardening Under Glass: The Complete Guide to Growing Under Cover" by Alan Toogood (Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1994)
Web sites
- "Greenhouse" from HGTV: www.hgtv.com/HGTV/ project/0,1158,GALA_project_13167,FF.html
- Sunset's "Ready for a Greenhouse?": www.sunset. com/Premium/Garden/2000/01-Jan/Greenhouses0100/ Greenhouses0100.html
- "Greenhouse Tips": www. hgtv.com/HGTV/project/0,1158,GALA_project_10481,FF.html
- "Gardening Under Glass": www.hgtv.com/HGTV/ project/0,1158,GALA_project_4953,FF.html
- "Build a Greenhouse": www. hgtv.com/HGTV/project/0,1158,BDRE_project_33203,FF.html
- Charley's Greenhouse and Garden: www.charleys greenhouse.com
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