My Greenhouse dreams...

Okay I know I said I was going to blog about Wendy houses and organic healthy gardening at first but I got a little carried away and got the idea for writing this post instead. This post about greenhouses, something I know very little about but has always intrigued me. I you have absolutely no idea what I’m talking about you have to go and check this out, it’s amazing – so beautiful. See the picture below:

The first I probably save a greenhouse was in a movie of some kind – impossible to remember which one but I remember thinking: “That pretty cool, imagine having one at your one home”. Having a greenhouse at my own house quickly became part of my top 10 list for my ultimate home. Now why would this sound so great to me, it’s just a glass room with a bunch of plants in them? Well, ever since a few years ago I changed my whole perspective on healthy living. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve always been very healthy but some of that was just be dumb luck, not by understanding everything. It was only until I started understanding the true health potential there is from eating healthy, organically and fresh vegetables that my perspective changed.

So without knowing what a greenhouse is for I had the idea in mind my of having my own little paradise one day with a huge greenhouse on it. In this greenhouse you would find all different kinds of vegetables, these would all be grown organically and would even be enough to feed my whole family. Apart from that I’d even have a few chickens laying eggs for me and a cow or 2 because I need my milk! Haha, sounds like a strange little dream?

Well I went and did some research into the matter and according to Wikipedia which you can read more about here

a greenhouse is: “A greenhouse (also called a glasshouse or a hothouse) is a building or complex in which plants are grown. These structures range in size from small sheds to industrial-sized buildings. A miniature greenhouse is known as a cold frame.”

According to Wikipedia greenhouses have many uses but some of the most efficient is the ability to control the growing environment of plants including temperature, humidity, light, shade and so forth. It’s a very effective solution to helping farmers or people when there are difficulties with a land’s quality.

Okay so obviously I neglected to mention that these greenhouses aren’t always just for growing plants that you can eat but also for display. It’s still pretty cool in my book. Just for the sake of it I went over to Amazon and searched for Greenhouses just to see what I can find. It seems that there are quite a few different designs when it comes to greenhouses. You might even be able to set one up in your yard for only a few bucks. I’d suggest you go and take a look at Amazon yourself for more information.

The Cape Town Weather and our Wendy House

What’s a Wendy House you might ask? We’ll here in South Africa we sometimes have different names for things compared to my American friends. All in all it’s basically a garden shed which you use to store or your tools in.

Know why it this important or even worthy of having a post on my blog you might ask? Well, Wendy Houses, however dumb and simple they may seem definitely have their place in society and more importantly in a gardener’s garden. What’s even more interesting is what people use these sheds for. In South Africa some people even live in Wendy house, you can even have one made for your dog if you have a very big one. However the most important function is still storing your gardening tools. You guys will come to know that I’m a big fan of Wikipedia and try to use them ever so often in my blog so if you haven’t ever heard of Wendy houses read 

this http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wendy_house

At my home in Cape Town we have Wendy House and because it’s winter time (rainy season) having one is more important now than ever. We store all our tools in it including our lawn mower, rakes, shovels and even some other camping stuff. But the Cape Town weather can be hard on a shed with some heavy rains during winter time and hot summer suns baking the Wendy House like an oven. With that being said it’s very important to take good care of your Wendy house.

Before I give you tips and before I forget to mention this if you are looking for a great Wendy House company in Cape Town here’s you can get more information form the Wendy Houses Cape Town website. These guys can give you quotes on second hand and brand new Wendy Houses for sale in the Cape Town area. You can also follow them on Facebook here: Garden Supply Facebook Page.

Back to the tips…

Like I was saying the weather is hard on a shed out here. Ours have really taken a beating over the past few weeks and it’s starting to show. To keep this from happening you have to cover the shed in the correct varnish or paint to protect the wood from rotting. Also make sure that it isn’t leaking and that the water doesn’t run down the shed and lands in a pool. This can mean really bad news for your Wendy House. If it starts rotting the damage can cost you a lot of money to fix.

We decided to get wooden Wendy house when we installed ours but there are other options out there as well. I guess it all depends on your budget and what you need. The company we got ours from also has plastic and metal sheds available. Supposedly the plastic ones are more commonly known as Nutec and can last for a very long time but has a pretty steep price tag attached to it.

Whatever your Wendy House preference make sure you look after it well because it has all your tools in it and without your tools gardening won’t be as fun any more, it might even start to sound like work for you.

Thank you for visiting My house and gardening!

Welcome to my brand new gardening blog! It would maybe surprise you that I am not an expert gardener at all. I see it this way: In order to master anything in life you need to start somewhere, do the research, master techniques and practice what you preach. This is where I got the idea of starting my own version of a gardening blog. There are so many great and popular gardening websites on the internet which I could only strive to follow or imitate.

To get a better understanding about me let me say this: I’m the kind of person that loves nature, I wasn’t always as fond of gardening but as I grew older I became to understand the beauty in nature and all it holds. I believe that gardening and more importantly growing your own food, naturally, organically and naturally is very important. If you want to read more about growing flowers this might not be the best place to find information on that, but if you want to feed yourself or your family organically then come right in.

That being said it doesn’t mean that every now and then I will throw in a more generalized gardening post about things like how to plant seeds or different types of Wendy houses. Well you get my drift… However like I said I’m still learning as a go along so everything might not be perfect, but more it’s worth a try.

Luckily I already have a few ideas for my first gardening posts so you can decide now if you want to come back and read more gardening stuff or not. In my first 2 post I want to be general and specific at the same time so I’m going to write one post about Wendy houses and another about gardening, living and eating organically or at least something like.

If you’re a veteran gardener I invite you to come to my blog and not only read my posts but comment and definitely give advice. I’m always open to suggestions and really want to learn more about gardening so I’m all ears. I’ll even allow some gardener to guest post on my blog from time to time if they are interested