SEEING GREEN

Hartley Botanic reveals the best ways to upgrade and refresh your Greenhouse space this spring.

Luxury Glasshouse and Greenhouse manufacturer Hartley Botanic is the authority on the world’s most desirable Glasshouses. When it comes to craftsmanship and structural integrity, a Hartley Botanic Glasshouse is the “finest money can buy,” and that’s not to mention the beauty and elegance of its incomparable range of structures.

With customers around the world, and leading horticulture organizations, institutions, and designers choosing a Hartley Botanic, they are also an authority on how best to style, organise and refresh your Glasshouse this spring—to truly enjoy its potential.

Create a lifestyle area

Hartley Botanic’s Greenhouses and Glasshouses are primarily used for growing—whether that’s exotic or ornamental plants. However, the timeless beauty of a handmade Glasshouse can also add another dimension to the enjoyment of our gardens. A Glasshouse can be used as a multifunctional space, allowing us to stay outdoors and amongst our plants for longer - whether that’s enjoying a cup of tea while listening to the rain patter against the roof, or making use of it as an alfresco space in the warmer summer months.

There are many stylish ways to extend time spent in your Glasshouse or Greenhouse. Use internal partitions to separate growing areas from spaces you can use for relaxing. Think about the activities you could do to make the best use of any lifestyle space, whether dressing a table for al fresco entertaining, pursuing a hobby like painting or just creating a new “under glass” area to enjoy with friends.

Introducing home conveniences, such as an eco-wood burner, is also great way to warm spring and autumn evenings and provide an additional heat source for tender plants.

Invest in beautiful organizational accessories

There are many organizational accessories that can help you make the best use of your Glasshouse space inside, using a mix of shelving, staging, and partitions.

These also have the benefit of looking very attractive. Hartley Botanic offers aluminum staging options (including ornate designs) that can be powder-coated in a color to match or contrast against your Greenhouse, providing elegant coherence. Pots can be stood on these, or alternatively shallow trays filled with a layer of grit or gravel can be used if this is kept moist a more plant-friendly habitat can be maintained. Gravel trays can be used in automated watering systems, reducing the rate at which pots dry out in summer.

Shelves also make more efficient use of space by occupying higher parts of your Greenhouse. This is particularly useful for trailing and smaller plants. Shelving also improves the appearance and visual impact of the Greenhouse by creating elevated displays of ornamental plants.

Other finishing touches to your Greenhouse or Glasshouse include adding a potting bench, compost store, or partitions.

Create different growing zones

The layout of plants within a Glasshouse or Greenhouse can be organized so as to provide optimum growing conditions at the same time as allowing gardeners to get maximum benefit and enjoyment. Using different levels of shelving works well both practically and visually.

Lower benches are useful for plants that are “resting,” such as corms like Cyclamen and tubers like Achimenes (hot water plants.) Top shelf staging is ideal for orchids as this can mimic their natural environment well, as they grow in trees. Different levels of staging are also pleasing to the eye, can be powdercoated to match the Glasshouse and means favourite plants can be displayed at bench-height.

Integrated aluminium cold-frames and growing beds provide further flexibility to develop separate growing conditions for different plant types. Cold-frames can also provide the perfect interim environment for efficient ‘hardening off’ of Greenhouse-grown plants.

If you plan to grow food crops, cut flowers or anything else in quantity, you will probably want to set up some Greenhouse beds. A Greenhouse built on a brick foundation, with natural soil as its floor will have the advantage of readymade growing facilities which can be incorporated at the installation stage. If the building rests on a concrete base, raised beds can be built or growing bags used for crops and plants.

Fill your Glasshouse with scent

Many fragrant herbs can be easily grown in a Greenhouse which adds a special sensory dimension. Lavender to help you relax and sleep. Chamomile can be used for anti-anxiety or Echinacea boosts the immune system. Growing herbs is also a great way to take advantage of the Glasshouse all year round, and especially as a shelter from the winter frost.

Herbs which are popularly used in cooking, such as Thyme, often have varieties from warmer climates such as the Mediterranean which mean they suit a Greenhouse well as they are not completely hardy.

Many herbs are ideal for growing in containers and can be kept by the door of your Greenhouse for ease of picking and so you can appreciate the scent they release when touched.

All Hartley Botanic’s Glasshouses and Greenhouses are handmade, bespoke, and made to order. For more information, visit hartley-botanic.com. During the winter months, Hartley Botanic is offering $50 off all new Greenhouse and Glasshouse orders *simply quote ‘50Winter’ to access the discount by the end of March.