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Show Grow your own plants By RENEE QUIRK-HAAS Copley News Service In the past, home owners generally bought greenhouses green-houses for housing delicate tropical plants, such as orchids. or-chids. But in recent years more people have gotten interested inter-ested in growing vegetables vegeta-bles year-round in the greenhouse's hospitable environment en-vironment or using the structures as room additions, addi-tions, often including spas or patio furniture and, naturally, nat-urally, plants in every unoccupied space. Firms that sell greenhouses green-houses uniformly agree that greenhouses are getting get-ting more popular. One possible reason, they say, is that people are spending more time at home because be-cause of rising fuel and entertainment en-tertainment costs and are increasingly attracted to home-centered hobbies such as greenhouse gardening. garden-ing. Home owners who want to add extra rooms onto their houses are often turning turn-ing to large greenhouse kits, since greenhouses can be easier to construct than other types of additions and sometimes qualify the owners for solar energy tax credits. Growing discontent with store-bought vegetables, because of high prices, low quality and concern about pesticide use, is also drawing draw-ing many people into the . greenhouse market. Greenhouse gardening has both advantages and disadvantages. The pluses-are pluses-are that the owner can alter the greenhouse's temperature tem-perature and humidity to suit the type of plants being grown and that normally nor-mally seasonal plants can be grown year-round. Starting and maintaining a greenhouse garden uses different - methods than those used in conventional gardening. Greenhouse specialists usually suggest starting plants from seeds, if possible, possi-ble, rather than buying established es-tablished plants from nurseries nur-series because nursery plants are more likely to bring in pests or diseases. Once established, insects and diseases are more difficult dif-ficult to eradicate than' usual because the greenhouse green-house provides the optimal environment for them to flourish in. One more unusual aspect of greenhouse gardening is that the gardener usually must assist the plants with pollination since no insects or significant breezes are present to carry the Dollen On the whole, greenhouse green-house gardening is different, differ-ent, but not necessarily more complicated, than conventional gardening. |