CHAPTER X. 

 THE AMATEUR'S GREENHOUSE. 



Reference to a greenhouse of such style as a working amateur can 

 easily build for himself does not warrant the reader in expecting 

 a general discussion of the growth of plants under glass. In this 

 connection the greenhouse will be considered only as a very desirable 

 and helpful adjunct in the propagation of plants to be grown in the 

 open air, or, possibly, as a sanitarium where plants wearied by use 

 in house decoration may be induced to perk up again by soil- 

 treatment and by sojourn for a time in more equable temperature and 

 moister air. Even for such simple uses the amateur's greenhouse 

 gives great satisfaction at very low cost, because in California it can be 

 very slightly built and does not require artificial heat so long as it is 

 restricted jto the growth of temperate and semi-tropical plants. There 

 may be a few nights in the year when one may be inclined to borrow 

 a small portable heater from the house or turn on a few incandescent 

 bulbs or even install a handful of promotion pamphlets, thus releas- 

 ing enough hot-air to rule out danger from frost under glass which is 

 kept whitened and thereby checks radiation of heat stored from the 

 previous day's sunshine. For in California valleys generally and 

 largely in the coast region also, the glass will need to be always kept 

 somewhat whitened against too ardent sun-heat. We have no trouble 

 from inefficiency in winter sunshine and no need to clean the glass to get 

 the last ray of it. If freshly whitened at the close of the rainy season the 

 fall rains will thin down the coating so; as to be about right for winter. 

 Therefore, it is only a small house which has no heating system but is 

 operated largely by sunshine, with occasional recourse to covering per- 

 haps, or to a little bottom heat from a lamp under a seed or cutting box, 

 which is contemplated in this discourse. 



How to Get a Small Greenhouse. The best way to get a small 

 greenhouse is to build it yourself you can get more satisfaction at 

 less cost than in any other way. To present a concrete demonstration 

 of this great truth the writer will draw upon his own experience. 

 When the contractor had finished enlarging and repairing the house, 

 some years ago, all the odds -and ends of lumber, etc., were bought for 

 a song and from the lumber pile in the back yard thus secured, the 

 construction of a combined tool house, dark-room, potting shed and 

 greenhouse, was entered upon. All that was actually purchased as 

 new material was the sash bars, glass, a little hardware and roofing- 

 paper for the part not covered with glass. The total outlay for new 

 materials was less than $35. A few old doors from the lumber pile 



