What are Home Greenhouses

Home Greenhouses, or as they were known in the nineteenth century, hothouses, are freestanding structures that house plants and let in light to 'feed' them. Plants do not move about like animals, so they have to feed in different ways. To a certain extent they draw it in from the ground by capillary action. Capillary action takes place, for instance, when you soak water up with a paper towel held upright. The water flows upward against gravity. Roots take in water and minerals from the soil, while foliage absorbs water and sunlight.

Sunlight is beneficial because plants utilize it as an energy source to drive photosynthesis. This is the process through which plants use light to create nutrients in order to sustain themselves, grow and reproduce. But how does a glasshouse help plants any more than just planting them outdoors in the ground.

How do Home Greenhouses Work

Greenhouses normally have a roof along with walls of glass or semitransparent plastic. Sunlight comprises a spectrum of light waves, some of which are invisible to the naked eye, such as ultraviolet light and infrared. Glass, along with some types of plastic, let all those waves in but only selected ones escape as efficiently.

Infrared light, which is the wavelength that we sense as heat, does not escape back through the glass as readily as the visible wavelengths. That heats the air inside the greenhouse, which is only partially allowed to vent to the outside, since the majority of them are reasonably well sealed.

The combined consequence of pulling in all that light energy, while only part of it gets out, causes the temperature inside to remain higher than outside. Anybody sitting in a closed car in the summer sun is aware of the effect. That is why green houses were sometimes called hot houses.

Greenhouses, similar to various man made structures, help us control conditions in ways we can not if plants are put in an outside garden. The effects of wind, temperature, quantity of sunlight and other variables are frequently more difficult to control outside a greenhouse.

Together with the ability to regulate the amount of sunlight, by use of glass, shutters or screens, garden greenhouses make it easier to protect fragile plants from high winds. They also afford an environment that can be more comfortable in which to plant, pot and manage soil.

Along with their usefulness, home greenhouses can be an attractive addition to the home. Well built, or pre-made, greenhouses are often architectural marvels. The glass cage can be eye-catching, and the view to the variety of plants and vegetables inside turn a workhouse into a work of art.