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To keep your greenhouse cool in summer, open vents early, run fans, and install shade cloth to manage heat. Water deeply in the morning with drip irrigation to retain moisture. Choose heat-loving crops like tomatoes and peppers, and consider smart tools like automatic vent openers and soil moisture sensors for consistent care. Read more below!
Transform Your Backyard with an Elegant She-Shed
Explore effective strategies to keep your greenhouse cool and thriving during the summer season.
The peak of summer brings the best of all worlds for the greenhouse gardener. Early tomatoes, the first zucchini and loads of strawberries. But there is another thing summer brings. The chance to start winter vegetables in your greenhouse.
Why grow your own lettuce this season? Growing full-size head lettuce in your greenhouse garden brings unmatched freshness, variety, and taste compared to store-bought bagged greens. Head lettuces like romaine, butter, crisphead, and leaf types offer richer textures, better crunch, and longer shelf life. They’re ideal for salads, wraps, and sandwiches—and thrive in small spaces between larger greenhouse crops. With easy care, seed-saving potential, and improved nutrition from organic soil, homegrown lettuce is a flavorful, sustainable upgrade to your garden. Rediscover the joy of harvesting crisp, nutrient-packed greens right outside your door.
If you watch old re-runs on Netflix you have seen how fashions and styles have changed dramatically since Seinfeld was filmed in the 1990s. The same is true for food – especially lettuce.
I first wrote about “novel” mesclun greens (mixed lettuce) in 1995. Since then, they have become so popular, that bagged lettuce is the only lettuce most people know. And this is too bad because lettuce greens or bagged greens are really just immature greens like kale and lettuce leaves. So, for something completely novel, why not go back to the future? Grow full-size head lettuce in your Greenhouse Garden this year.
Most people don’t remember life before the small bags of lettuce leaves so commonly sold now at big box stores and local farm markets. But if you want the crunch of lettuce in a BLT sandwich or if you want to replace Pita bread with a Keto-friendly lettuce leaf wrap for lunch, then start growing your own heads of lettuce this season.
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.
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.
What are the tips for ordering seeds and supplies for hobby greenhouse growing? To succeed in hobby greenhouse gardening, it’s crucial to read seed catalog fine print carefully—choosing parthenocarpic varieties for cucumbers and zucchinis that don’t require pollination, selecting heat-tolerant and slow-bolting plant varieties, and using foliar fertilizers for cold soils. Understanding pollination needs, temperature tolerance, and plant growth habits ensures better yields and healthier crops year-round. Starting seeds indoors, like onions in January, and adapting to your greenhouse environment helps optimize growth and harvest success.
When I started growing in my Greenhouse Garden a few of my favourite plants stopped working for me. That's what I learned to read the catalog fine print and adapt my shopping for a better hobby greenhouse growing.
Why Should I Start My Fall Crops Now?
Starting fall crops in August maximizes your greenhouse space by replacing summer plants like zucchini or lettuce with fast-growing cool-season crops such as radish, kale, peas, and spinach. This strategic transition extends your harvest into fall and winter while allowing you to propagate strawberries, collect seeds, and prepare transplants. By planning now, you create a continuous cycle of fresh food, making your greenhouse more productive year-round.
August crops are growing so fast that I should have a time-lapse camera to record the speedy growth. It’s a good thing I’m home all month to watch the changes and get the next crops planted and growing. Check out my tips to grow your own food too!
How can I solve watering problems in my greenhouse garden? Using irrigation solutions such as shrubblers, soaker hoses, and self-watering pots helps maintain consistent soil moisture, reducing plant stress caused by irregular watering. These systems allow you to keep your plants healthy and hydrated even when you’re away, preventing common issues like wilting or nutrient deficiencies. By implementing these methods, you can improve plant growth, avoid over- or under-watering, and achieve higher yields in your greenhouse garden.
Hand watering is fun for gardeners. If you are around to get the job done. But a wilted plant is a stressed plant and stressed plants get buggy. I would love to stay home all summer watering my
greenhouse at exactly the right minute but that’s just wishful thinking. The truth is, life gets in the way and instead of tending my tomatoes and pacifying my pak choi with hand watering I seem to travel just when my babies need me.
