Hello gardening friends! Are you ready to take your gardening to a new level? Our Perfect Match Greenhouse Quiz is a fun way to make your gardening dreams come true!

How to Prepare your Greenhouse for High Wind Storms

Tidying Up Before Storms

Tidy up ahead of storms, so that in the event of high winds or snow storms items such as trash bins, lawn furniture, pots and trays will not be blown into your greenhouse. If required, move all the accumulated equipment and supplies out of the way along the sides and around ends of your greenhouse if you would like to create a path to the greenhouse or prevent snow drifts from accumulating on the sidewalls.

Kevin Stanyer, Custom Fabrication Manager, talks about his role at BC Greenhouses.

When it comes to custom greenhouses, Kevin is an amazing resource for the team at BCG.  The custom projects that are designed and manufactured from his department are unique, complex and quite frankly cool.  But let’s go back to the beginning for a moment.

Backyard Greenhouses are Growing on Homeowners

BC Greenhouse Builders Limited, North America’s leading builder of hobby and estate greenhouses, is proud to announce the recent article "Backyard Greenhouses are Growing on Homeowners" by Melissa Feldman.  The publication comes at a great time while we are celebrating our 70th anniversary.  This article featured two of our greenhouses and greenhouse customers.

Quick Answer:

What are the tips for greenhouse gardening in March and April? Early spring greenhouse gardening involves starting fruit cuttings like raspberries over heat mats to encourage rooting, transplanting hardy crops such as peas for early harvests, and directly sowing cold-tolerant seeds like radishes, spinach, and arugula in unheated soil. By managing space, timing crops carefully, and using seasonally appropriate strategies, gardeners can extend their growing season and enjoy fresh produce well before outdoor gardens mature. This approach maximizes greenhouse productivity while creating a rewarding, year-round gardening experience.

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Sunshine on Your Face in the Greenhouse Garden

I close my eyes as I bask in the sun, heat on my face. I take off my jacket and then my hat. My neighbors, friends and family have gone away to Martinique, Belize and Spain but I am experiencing the best holiday. I am sitting in the sun at home – in my Greenhouse Garden.

Quick Answer:

What Are the Tips for Growing Greenhouse Tomatoes in the Heat?
To prevent heat stress and flower drop in greenhouse tomatoes, use 40-70% shade cloth to reduce temperature and light intensity, maintain good air circulation with fans and open screen doors, and regularly water soil and paths to cool the environment and increase humidity. Selecting heat-tolerant tomato varieties, like smaller-fruited types or proven heirlooms such as Juliet and Cherokee Purple, helps ensure fruit set during hot spells. Combining these strategies allows growers to maximize tomato yields and extend the harvest season even in extreme summer heat.

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The Trouble with Greenhouse Tomatoes

Do your greenhouse tomatoes have heat stroke?

If your tomato blooms are bending and falling off, flower and all, they are having a heatstroke. When extreme heat hits, greenhouse tomatoes fail to set fruit even as the leaves keep growing and new blooms appear.

 

Joanna, accountant for BC Greenhouse Builders, is a legacy

As part of our 70th Anniversary, we continue with spotlights on people who have shaped the BC Greenhouses that we are today. 

Joanna DeJong, Accounts Manager of BC Greenhouse Builders, started her long career in 1997.  One of the few legacy employees who not only remembers the Hedley location in Burnaby but worked there too.  Joanna started as a Girl Friday of sorts but her introduction to the Heinen family started much earlier.

Big Idea:

Build the best greenhouse for you, forever. Listen to this greenhouse podcast and learn more about BC greenhouse Builders and their 70 Years of building high-quality greenhouses.

Mike Brouwer, the owner of Clear Choice Glass Construction, is the exclusive representative for BC Greenhouse Builders in the Fraser Valley.

Recently, I had the opportunity to connect with Mike Brouwer, owner of Clear Choice Glass Construction, about his history with BC Greenhouse Builders. Mike is what we would call a "legacy employee." Legacy to us means someone who has been with the company for an extraordinary amount of time, adds value and improves the company over the years through their dedication and hard work.

Pests, Worm Castings and Algae

What are Worm Castings?

Before we get to greenhouse gardening algae, let's talk about a shopper on Amazon that complained about bugs in her worm castings. If you don’t speak garden lingo yet, worm castings are simply worm poop. They are mixed with soil in garden beds or in pots to make tomatoes grow faster, stronger and healthier. And just in case you missed the memo, worm poop comes with bugs of its own. The good ones.