~—— = 
No. 1, greenhouse, 40x9 ft. Cost $250 
No. 2, Measuring 75x12 ft. Cost $1,000 
No. 3, 90x12 ft., with frames, cost $2,000 
Pleasures and Profits of a Small Greenhouse —By W. C. McCollom, “, 
NOT NECESSARILY A RICH MAN’S HOBBY, BUT A POSSIBILITY FOR ANYONE WITH TWO HUNDRED AND 
FIFTY DOLLARS AND A SMALL PLOT OF GROUND — HOW IT INCREASES THE RETURNS FROM THE GARDEN 
|e suburban place that is occu- 
pied through the winter should have 
a greenhouse. It’s well enough to talk of 
the beauty and winter comfort of ever- 
greens and red berries and shrubs with 
brightly colored bark but during the cold 
weather there is nothing like the joy of seeing 
things grow. Besides the pleasure a green- 
house gives us, there is a real tangible value 
in growing flowers and vegetables for house- 
hold use and besides there is always a chance 
to dispose of the surplus at good prices and 
thus make our hobby partially if not wHolly 
self-supporting. 
Somehow we associate greenhouses with 
millionaires, but there is really no reason 
for it. Of course, a large amount of money 
can be expended on a greenhouse just the 
same as on a house or barn, if it is a rich 
man’s hobby, but a small greenhouse can 
be erected at a very small expense. 
The first one I built (shown in the pic- 
ture) cost only $250 complete. In fact it did 
not really cost that, for it was built by a 
gardener and his assistant and the bill for 
material was $147. This house is built in 
the form of a pit, with 8-inch concrete 
walls, ventilated, and heated with hot 
water. The house is forty feet long and 
nine feet wide. While this little house has 
given me a great deal of pleasure, I should 
recommend a house a trifle larger if you 
can afford it. 
The one in the second picture cost about 
$1,000. This house is 75 x 12 ft. — plenty 
large enough to grow all the spring plants 
for a large place, besides furnishing fresh 
_vegetables during winter. 
The third house I built is 90 x 12 ft. with 
heated frames running the entire length. 
It is built with concrete walks and walls 
and iron braces throughout. It is the kind 
of a house that can be used for growing 
anything from orchids to cabbage, and 
cost about $2,000. 
While there is considerable to learn 
about running a greenhouse the same is 
true of any kind of gardening. It is not 
necessary to employ a gardener, although 
of course it makes success surer. A man 
can care for a small greenhouse and attend 
business in the city. If one must be absent 
during the day, some assistance will be 
necessary to ventilate the greenhouses, but 
this is a comparatively simple matter. 
WHAT CAN BE DONE? 
But suppose we have a_ greenhouse, 
what can we grow? The general answer 
to this is almost everything. It is possible 
to have beans, tomatoes, cauliflower, radish, 
and lettuce in mid-winter, besides an end- 
less variety of flowers. The idea with a 
greenhouse is to keep it working all the 
time. As soon as a crop is gone from the 
benches it should be replaced with another. 
It is surprising how much can be grown in 
a small greenhouse properly handled. 
In one season in the thousand dollar house 
I raised from seed about 1,000 celery plants 
and had celery ready for use by August rst. 
I also grew about 300 cabbage plants and 
the same amount of cauliflower, 60 egg- 
plants and 120 peppers all ready to use in 
June and July. I grew 150 muskmelons 
that ripened in the latter part of July, 
300 tomatoes with fruit ready for picking 
by July 1st, and over 300 lettuce plants. 
Besides this I raised about 2,000 early plants 
for the flower garden, such as asters, ager- 
atum, amaranthus, carnations, heliotrope, 
cosmos, scabiosa, stocks, salvia, snapdragons, 
single dahlias, tuberous rooted begonias, 
verbenas, petunias, pansies, celosias and 
so on. During the summer I grew a crop 
of chrysanthemums and cut about 1,000 
flowers of the very best quality. Ihave taken 
a number of prizes at chrysanthemum 
shows with the product of this house. 
STORING TENDER BULBS 
The growing of plants, flowers and vege- 
tables is not the only useful factor of a 
greenhouse. It also solves the problem of 
storing tender bulbs, such as cannas, dahlias, 
caladiums, gladioli and so on during 
winter. But its greatest use is in the help 
it is to the garden in the spring. With the 
smallest kind of a house to start your seeds 
in, you can beat your neighbors’ gardens 
by a full month. Just think cf sweet corn 
Build a greenhouse now and raise your seedlings in flats with tomatoes, etc., overhead 
15 
