| Positioning in relation to the house?
1. North side of the home: Used for some flowering
plants, bulbs, cacti, annuals, vegetables, herbs and other plants that require
high light levels. But they become very hot in summer if they are not
shaded.
2. South side of the home: Can be ideal for
ferns and other foliage plants that tend to grow without direct
sunlight.
3. East side of the home: Good for some flowering
plants, orchids and bromeliads and other plants that like part sunlight
conditions.
4. West side of the home: Good for cacti and
succulents and other hot climate plants. These often get very hot in
summer.
Would it suit your style of house?
This is more of a personal choice because it
often comes down to whether you and your family would be able to live with
it for years to come.
Does it suit your climate?
In extremes of weather they can be a major source
of heat gain or loss, to the detriment of the room to which they are
attached.
What sort of microclimate will it create for
the plants and the room to which it is attached?
Would it increase the humidity of the room to
which it is attached, (usually not a problem except for very small
rooms).
Can you put it in an area where it will not
get in the way of either indoor or outdoor activities? For example, would
the space it takes up detract from space used to entertain outdoors, or gain
access to an outside door. Would it make a good target for backyard
cricket/baseball games? Would it get in the way of young bicycle riders on
the veranda/patio? You should think especially of the danger levels of placing
it immediately near a corner of the house that the kids of all sizes, could
run/ride around and hit into.
How easy would it be to access it from indoors
for maintenance of your plants?
What is the ease or difficulty of being able
to clean it from inside and out?
How easy or not is it to open and close the
window?
What insect control measures are in place, both
for the health and comfort of plants and people?
What are the light levels available to the plants,
both from inside and out?
Would it make a good entry point for "uninvited"
members of the public to enter your home?
Does it add to or detract from your privacy
screening of that area of your home?
These displays boxes do not look any good unless
they have a number of plants in them; are you prepared to put the effort
into maintaining the plants over a long time?
Where would water run to if you accidentally
overwater your plants?
If it is a precoated metal type, is the colour
going to suit your possible changing of home colours at a later date?
What are your local government authorities'
rules and regulations dealing with the subject of home additions?
Are you in a housing estate, apartment block
etc., where you have to get approval from the owners/managers/tenants association
or whatever for approval?
Just remember that everyone's situation is
different, so the answers you give to the above questions will be different.
But I hope that the above questions will help in some way in your decision
making as to whether or not a window greenhouse would be a suitable addition
to your home.
~~
You may also be interested in
Get Organized Now!
Ideas, tips, tools and more to help you organize your home, your office and
your life!
~~
Credits/Acknowledgements:
Ron Williams is a Free lance writer as
well as being a Horticulturalist and Rehabilitation Therapy Aid at a Psychiatric
Hospital In Brisbane, Queensland, Australia.
This article was first published at
www.aushomepage.com.au
He writes regular email newsletters for
www.wz.com
Container Gardening
http://wz.com/homegarden/ContainerGardening.html
Enabled Gardens
http://wz.com/homegarden/EnabledGardens.html
Australian Gardening
http://wz.com/homegarden/AustralianGardening.html
Travel in Australia
http://wz.com/travel/TravelWithinAustralia.html
He also owns a Discussion Group about
Australian Gardening at www.Yahoo.com
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/austgardens
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