Greenhouse Gardening even in Winter…Underground!

As the spring slowly approaches (man this winter just won’t end) gardening enthusiasts are getting their seeds in order and starting to plan their 2013 vegetable gardens. My wife is a big vegetable gardener and I’m happy to say that most of the summer and fall, even into the beginnings of winter my family is served fresh veggies from our organic backyard garden. We haven’t really jumped in to greenhouse gardening as yet.

We do have a fairly large backyard and thus a fairly large garden. It’s fun for my wife and kids and is obviously much cheaper than your supermarket fare, as well as much healthier. I must say everything even tastes better just knowing that we grow our very own veggies! I encourage anyone with the capacity to get out there and try your hand at  growing an organic veggie garden. Even if you live in a high rise in a big urban center  talk to the owner about rooftop gardening, if that isn’t an option then there are usually garden clubs or plots of land where you pay a very small fee to have your very own growing space….now that’s cool!

I’m usually a little bit bummed when our last cucumber or tomato (omg those are my absolute favorite) are gone for the year and we must resort to supermarket goods.  But alas, I came across this killer article from treehugger.com on underground greenhouses that you can actually grow in cold climates and year round.

How awesome is this?  Super awesome!!  Greenhouse gardening is something we’ve wanted to do for a long time.

These underground greenhouses are simply called underground greenhouses, clever huh,  as well as Walipini – meaning ‘place of warmth.’ These utilize nature’s natural resources that provides a warm enough space for gardening year round even in colder climates.  What you want to do is dig down 6 to 8 feet and make it as long as you want.  During the day the underground greenhouse collects all the solar energy it needs from the sun.  A plastic sheet is used for the roof which needs to be angled properly to collect the right amount of sunlight.

Another fantastic piece of news about these underground greenhouses is that, according to the treehugger article, one can be built for as little as $300.  Now that is a great price that you will make back in your first year of growing all of your veggies yourself.