56 
House & Garden 
vegetable plants and flowers which can be 
started for use in the spring, will total up to 
a sum that represents in most instances a very 
good interest on the investment required. 
The Cost Consideration 
Paradoxical though it may seem, the cost of 
maintaining a greenhouse of your own has not 
increased in proportion 
to most other things dur¬ 
ing the last ten years or 
so, in spite of the fact 
that all building materi¬ 
als have gone up con¬ 
siderably. This is due, 
first of all, to the fact 
that improvements in 
greenhouse construction 
have made them infin¬ 
itely more durable than 
they were formerly. The 
big expense of a green¬ 
house used to be not in 
its first cost, but in its 
extremely rapid depre¬ 
ciation. One of the old 
style wooden houses, 
built by a local carpen¬ 
ter, would need constant 
fixing up and repairing 
after the first four or five 
years. A modern green¬ 
house, which is practi¬ 
cally all made in a fac¬ 
tory especially equipped 
for greenhouse materials, 
requires a minimum of 
labor to put up, and will 
last practically as long 
as a dwelling house. This 
improvement in construc¬ 
tion has meant an equally 
important saving in the 
matter of heating. As 
soon as a greenhouse begins to get leaky, 
as the old-fashioned all wood houses very 
quickly did, the expensive task of trying 
to heat up all outdoors in order to main¬ 
tain a living temperature for your plants 
becomes a necessity. 
Furthermore, the heating of an attached 
greenhouse may be made very largely a 
matter of utilizing a by-product of the 
house heating system, so that the item of 
expense is still further cut. With a good 
house of modem construction, heated from 
the house heating plant and costing from 
$500 to $1,000, it is not a difficult matter 
to produce $150 to $300 worth of vege¬ 
tables, cut flowers and plants during the 
year. This is a sum that will compare 
favorably with the debit items, which con¬ 
sist in the investment, depreciation and 
slight extra amount of fuel required for 
heating. As with the small vegetable gar¬ 
den, the thing which makes possible such 
a favorable showing as this with the small 
greenhouse is that the labor required is 
usually a by-product of the owner’s time, 
which would usually not be utilized. In 
a commercial undertaking of the same na¬ 
ture the item of labor would be one of the 
largest, if not the largest, of all the costs. 
Quality Yield 
There is one more point to consider, 
even from the money side of the question. 
In comparing cut flowers, such as carna¬ 
tions, violets, snapdragons, mignonette and 
a score of others that can be easily grown 
in a moderate temperatured greenhouse, 
with those from the florist’s shop, remember 
that the former will remain fresh about twice 
as long. Fresh vegetables which may easily 
be had in season in the same greenhouse, com¬ 
pared with those you would buy from the gro¬ 
cer, show such a superior quality that a com¬ 
parison on the cash basis alone does not give 
anything like a fair trial balance. 
The interior of the house pictured at the bottom, of the preceding page. The 
ventilating system is convenient to operate and there is plenty of room to work 
comfortably 
The plan of the conservatory-greenhouse shows a pool, 
a seat or two, and the regular beds and benches for 
plants 
While, in order to get the biggest money 
returns from your greenhouse, every square foot 
of space within its four walls should be utilized 
for the most intensive gardening possible, nev¬ 
ertheless the greatest returns in pleasure are to 
be had where the greenhouse is designed with 
a view to making it a place to live as well as to 
work or play in. And yet it is only occasion¬ 
ally that one sees a green¬ 
house designed with this 
important point consid¬ 
ered. Possibly this is be¬ 
cause many small green¬ 
houses are modifications 
of more expensive ones 
which have been designed 
for people who have had 
sun parlors or conserva¬ 
tories in addition to their 
greenhouses, or else 
smaller editions of com¬ 
mercial greenhouses. 
Therefore, the particular 
advantages which a com¬ 
bination house of this 
kind offers have been 
overlooked. 
The Attached Green¬ 
house 
The accompanying 
sketches give a simple 
suggestion for a small 
attached greenhouse, 
planned with the idea of 
enabling one to enjoy to 
the full the warmth of 
summer sunshine, the 
fragrance of freshly 
opened flowers, and the 
good smell of fresh, moist 
soil, not only while put¬ 
tering around the green¬ 
house work, but while 
reading or sewing or even playing cards 
or taking afternoon tea! Very little bed 
or bench room has been cut out. With 
this arrangement it is possible to have the 
plants which happen to be at the height 
of their beauty where they can all be seen 
and enjoyed together, no matter what the 
season of the year. While they are being 
developed, and after they have gone by, 
they may be kept in the working part of 
the greenhouse, or under the benches or 
in the frames, as the necessities of the 
particular thing in hand may require. 
While the drawings show a greenhouse 
which is attached to the dwelling house at 
right angles, with a change in the floor 
level where the living room end or con¬ 
servatory is partitioned off, the same ar¬ 
rangements may be used even in the sim¬ 
plest kind of an attached greenhouse, or 
in the lean-to type, as well as in one built 
at right angles. 
When it comes to the more technical 
matters of the design, material, equipment 
and heating of the greenhouse one finds in 
these days a wealth of material to select 
from, fitted to every requirement. 
Too frequently the mistake is made of 
considering these things before the general 
plan and purpose of the house have been 
determined upon. The result is that while 
one may get a house that is very good of 
its kind, it is not the kind to give its 
owner the greatest possible satisfaction. 
To be sure of getting what you want, have 
the general plan of your proposed green- 
(Continued on page 80) 
