Greenhouses, grow rooms and nurseries

For me, one of the essentials for a productive garden, is to be able to grow your own seedlings. First of all, it saves money, but if you do it using a greenhouse, grow room, nursery or caterpillar tunnel. You can get a head start on planting, and grow things that don’t grow well in the season you are in.
Many factors go into determining what solution to use. It all depends on money and the climate you grow in. Here on our homestead in Southern California, we grow food all year round. We are in grow zone 10b, so we get very little frost, and very high temperatures in the summer.
During the summer we grow squash, pumpkins, sweet potatoes, tomatoes, cucumbers, asparagus, melons, fruit and berries. In early spring and late fall peas, okra, cassava, beans and grains.
During the cold season we grow root vegetables, herbs, herbs, cauliflower, broccoli, cabbages, lettuce, kohlrabi and other things that like a cooler temperature. In order to be able to harvest and plant at the same time, we start our seeds inside in our small grow room.
We have tried having a greenhouse, but it got way to how, for us to grow anything, but if you live in one of the cooler grow zones, a greenhouse or caterpillar tunnel, is a fantastic tool. It was the same goes outdoor nurseries like cold frames.
Here we decided to convert one of our bathroom showers, to an indoor nursery, since our house had 3 full baths, which is more than we need.
First we covered all of the walls and the floor with reflective sheets, only leaving holes for the shower outlet and control. We put a strong grow light in the ceiling, build shelving units, and added extra grow lights where the light couldn’t reach, plus a fan to promote air circulation. We added a timer control the light system and fan. Last I bought a connector for the shower, so I could attach a hose for watering the plants. One important thing to remember, when you make and grow indoors, is to prevent fungus gnats. To do that I cover the soil in my planters, with vermiculite  when seeding and transplanting. We also water from below, as soon as roots have grown.
You will be surprised of how much can be fitted into this small space. I have added a video to show it.  
During summer when we can’t grow lettuce outside, I also grow those in the nursery, along with seedlings for the next season and during the cold season, plants coffee, and cassava that doesn’t like the colder temperatures, and grows from cuttings. Today I am going to plant mulberry cuttings, so they are ready to plant out, in spring. I also grow seedling starts for succession planting. I can fit approximately 600 seed starts in my small grow room, which is plenty for our needs. When I transplant into larger pots, I use biodegradable paper bags, which can be planted with the seedling. This prevents transplant shock, when they are ready for transplanting after conditioning to outdoor temperatures. Because we don’t have transplant shock, the plants grow faster and stronger. Note that this also can be done using soil blocks.
When starting seedlings indoors in potting soil or compost, the plants will eventually need a liquid fertilizer. Here I use water from our ducks swimming pool.
I don’t know a lot about using green houses and tunnels, so if you do, please share your experience with it.

Hi Ulla, what a great idea to convert a shower cabin into a grow-room!
Such an inspiration - I might have to construct a mini growroom upstairs where there is more light, above the rocket mass heater!
Your post is packed with interesting information.
Our grow zone is way cooler, 8a - 8b, and I've just started here, on this location, one and a half years ago.
Here are my experiences until now:
Our first greenhouse was a plastic tunnel, but it only lasted for a week - a heavy storm blew it away!
That was a valuable lesson about prevailing wind direction and exposure to wind.
My hubby built a greenhouse that is now far better situated. It gets the most sunlight hours on our property and is sheltered from the west wind by trees and bushes.
Last summer we got tons of cucumbers and tomatoes, the tomatoes going strong until November!
I sowed some cool weather greens in the greenhouse, lettuce and mizuna. Apparently there are tiny slugs on the ground that effectively mowed the seedlings, but the leafy greens in the elevated grow boxes are going strong.
In the vegetable garden we still have kale, and the calendula keeps on blooming, that's lovely.
Our ground has a lot of clay and I seem to have difficulties in getting carrots and parsnip to grow well. In the soil is too dense, in the hugel beds, too loose.
But every season the situation gets better, I'm mulching with straw and the benefits are accumulating quickly.
I'm saving seeds in order to have land race vegetables and herbs.

I am of the do what works for you way of thinking.

I don't start seed indoor.  I don't have a greenhouse, grow-room, tunnel, etc.

Mother nature taught me to grow my seeds outdoors.

In school they taught me to use paper egg cartons to start seeds and that does work for me though I have not used that method in a long time.

Rather than liquid fertilizer, I like compost tea. Have you tried compost tea?

Anne Miller wrote:I am of the do what works for you way of thinking.

I don't start seed indoor.  I don't have a greenhouse, grow-room, tunnel, etc.

Mother nature taught me to grow my seeds outdoors.

In school they taught me to use paper egg cartons to start seeds and that does work for me though I have not used that method in a long time.

Rather than liquid fertilizer, I like compost tea. Have you tried compost tea?

Hi Anne, I am also a do what works for you, kind of girl. I remember growing seeds in egg cartons, in school, too. It was a lot of fun.
I do direct seed some things, like radishes, carrots and parsnips, but the cold season are so short here, that I won’t get any cabbages, broccoli, cauliflower kohlrabi etc if I didn’t start them inside. If we are lucky we get 4 months of cool weather a year. We are not that lucky this year, we are getting Santa Anna winds for the second time this year, so it’s hot, windy  and dry, which is why LA is burning. We are south east of San Diego and lucky, that they so far, have been able to handle the fires here.
As for fertilizer and compost tea. I use both regularly, but the duck pond water is the best. It’s a mix of water, duck poop and the greens they eat. I use rabbit pellets as a slow release fertilizer and the pond water when I need something fast.

Nina Surya wrote:Hi Ulla, what a great idea to convert a shower cabin into a grow-room!
Such an inspiration - I might have to construct a mini growroom upstairs where there is more light, above the rocket mass heater!
Your post is packed with interesting information.
Our grow zone is way cooler, 8a - 8b, and I've just started here, on this location, one and a half years ago.
Here are my experiences until now:
Our first greenhouse was a plastic tunnel, but it only lasted for a week - a heavy storm blew it away!
That was a valuable lesson about prevailing wind direction and exposure to wind.
My hubby built a greenhouse that is now far better situated. It gets the most sunlight hours on our property and is sheltered from the west wind by trees and bushes.
Last summer we got tons of cucumbers and tomatoes, the tomatoes going strong until November!
I sowed some cool weather greens in the greenhouse, lettuce and mizuna. Apparently there are tiny slugs on the ground that effectively mowed the seedlings, but the leafy greens in the elevated grow boxes are going strong.
In the vegetable garden we still have kale, and the calendula keeps on blooming, that's lovely.
Our ground has a lot of clay and I seem to have difficulties in getting carrots and parsnip to grow well. In the soil is too dense, in the hugel beds, too loose.
But every season the situation gets better, I'm mulching with straw and the benefits are accumulating quickly.
I'm saving seeds in order to have land race vegetables and herbs.

What a lovely greenhouse, and big too. It looks and sounds like you are doing great. It takes time building up production.
We bought our little homestead in 2017. We have 1/2 acre, but much are used for the house and driveway. We started out with dirt aka sand and clay, which is to be expected in a desert climate. We spend the first few years amending the soil, with compost and more compost. Hard work, but it has paid off.
We now have a 3300 square feet food forest garden, and a 4200 square feet backyard with 20 large raised beds, chickens, rabbits and ducks. We grow a lot now. In 2024 I harvested 2206 pounds of fruits, berries, nuts, vegetables, herbs, grains, seeds and spices. So far in 2025 we have harvested and eaten 20 pounds of lettuce, spinach, collards, pac choy, other greens, and 2 pounds of carrots, which was the last of what I seeded in 2024. I still have two pumpkins and 150 pounds of winter squash left for fresh eating, plus around 250 pounds of sweet potatoes out of the 418 pounds we grew this year. The rest of the warm weather crops are either preserved or has been eaten. The garden are booming with greens, so we have salads and green juice every day, with our meals.
We constantly adding to the food forest garden. While we finished the layout, and are finished planting trees and shrubs, there are always something new to add and we had two old trees die on us this year, so those have to be exchanged. We are still discussing what to exchange it with. Most of the rest of our fruit trees are dormant, so I am spending this week pruning. We are still getting tomatoes and raspberries in the food forest, which is wild.
Last year I added flower bulbs, more rock roses and licorice roots. This spring I am adding artichokes, pine apples, kiwano jelly melons, a cardamom shrub, 2 coffee trees, a lot of different low growing herbs, and more wild flowers. I also just took cuttings from our mulberry tree, that are now propagating in the grow room.
I grow 30+ different herbs and spices, both culinary and medicinal. They are spread out over the forest floor, so I go foraging when I need some. I do also have 1 raised bed with culinary herbs. The whole idea of the forest garden, is to make a place where you can explore, and enjoy an explosion of smells, sounds and colors. Anyway I got very far away from the topic. I am looking forward to hearing about how things evolve for you over the upcoming years.

That’s a fantastic setup! Using an indoor nursery in a converted bathroom shower is such a creative and resourceful way to make the most of your space, especially in Southern California's climate. You’ve really thought through every detail, from the reflective walls to the ventilation system and watering method. It sounds like you’ve mastered growing in zone 10b with all the different crops you’re able to grow year-round.

Joe Peterson wrote:That’s a fantastic setup! Using an indoor nursery in a converted bathroom shower is such a creative and resourceful way to make the most of your space, especially in Southern California's climate. You’ve really thought through every detail, from the reflective walls to the ventilation system and watering method. It sounds like you’ve mastered growing in zone 10b with all the different crops you’re able to grow year-round.

Thank you Joe. It actually took me a 5 years to get it right. It started out as my husbands idea, while I was very sick. I was mostly bed bound, and putting a big planter in the shower gave me something nice to see in there, and work with on good days. As I grew better the purpose changed, and now when I am no longer bed bound it has evolved into what we have today. Growing in zone 10 a or b will always be a challenge. It’s a desert climate, so we get huge fluctuations in temperature s and humidity. This is why we have both a raised bed garden and a food forest garden. It takes a long time for a food forest garden to grow large and mature enough, to stabilize temperatures and humidity.
It has taken careful planning to pick out the right plants to grow there. We want trees of all sizes to maximize the size of the canopy we are trying to grow, and harvest times also needs to be looked at, since we want the fruit and berry harvest to stretch over the whole year. Other things we have taken into consideration has also been what we like to eat, and how some years are cool and some are hot. This means I very wide variety of trees, shrubs, herbs and vegetables. From perennials to self seeding annuals.
Is you want to take a look at the process you can look here. Food forest
As for the indoor grow room. It has proven essential to both our food forest garden and our raised bed garden, and pays for itself, in saving on plant starts and cuttings.

Ulla Bisgaard wrote:

What a lovely greenhouse, and big too. It looks and sounds like you are doing great. It takes time building up production.
We bought our little homestead in 2017. We have 1/2 acre, but much are used for the house and driveway. We started out with dirt aka sand and clay, which is to be expected in a desert climate. We spend the first few years amending the soil, with compost and more compost. Hard work, but it has paid off.
We now have a 3300 square feet food forest garden, and a 4200 square feet backyard with 20 large raised beds, chickens, rabbits and ducks. We grow a lot now.
...
We constantly adding to the food forest garden. The whole idea of the forest garden, is to make a place where you can explore, and enjoy an explosion of smells, sounds and colors. Anyway I got very far away from the topic. I am looking forward to hearing about how things evolve for you over the upcoming years.

Hello Ulla,
Thank you! The beginning here produce-wise is quite modest, except for the tomatoes earlier and eggs now still going strong.
Our place has 3000m2, including buildings. At the moment we're focussing on the renovation, greenhouse, vegetable patch and reviving the old orchard, but I'm slowly building up a food forest and healing garden as well.
Your posts are super informative and inspiring!
You obviously keep track about what you harvest. Would you mind sharing a little about your 'book keeping system'? Does it include the input of trees and such as well?
I'm asking because my own method - a notebook with hasty notes to self - isn't working that great (yet).
Your posts about your food forest in another thread are also very interesting. Thank you for sharing!

Nina Surya wrote:
Hello Ulla,
Thank you! The beginning here produce-wise is quite modest, except for the tomatoes earlier and eggs now still going strong.
Our place has 3000m2, including buildings. At the moment we're focussing on the renovation, greenhouse, vegetable patch and reviving the old orchard, but I'm slowly building up a food forest and healing garden as well.
Your posts are super informative and inspiring!
You obviously keep track about what you harvest. Would you mind sharing a little about your 'book keeping system'? Does it include the input of trees and such as well?
I'm asking because my own method - a notebook with hasty notes to self - isn't working that great (yet).
Your posts about your food forest in another thread are also very interesting. Thank you for sharing!

Sure, I use excel to do the calculations, and since I use seedtime to help plan the garden each year, I use their journal to keep track of how much we harvest each time. I also use record keeping lists, for things like eggs, so the person who gathers eggs, count them and add them to the sheet. I think I got them from the Homesteaders of America’s website. They can be put in a journal too. I don’t use them, but I know you can get paper journals for homesteaders, farmers and gardeners, where you can write in your expenses and yields. Keeping track of how much I spend of seed and plants, is a thing I am very bad at, but wants to get better at. I do have a binder where I keep the most important information, like what perennials I planted and where.
For day to day information and planning, I use a big white board. I need the visual or I forget things like, what seeds I pre ordered and from where. Our biggest one time buy, was the 900 dollars I spend on 50 cubic yards of compost and partly composted mulch. It was well worth it though, since it really boosted the plants in the forest garden. I am in the process of getting more compost bins, since we only produce a fraction of the amount of compost we need each year. I also get my soil tested once a year, so I know how things look.
Anyway, my biggest partner in keeping track of things on a yearly basis, is excel spreadsheets. I will attach a copy of it here. Note that in the attachment you can’t see the monetary value of the harvest yet. I have been too busy to do those calculations yet, and I hate math LOl.
There is one thing, that I always tell new homesteaders and gardeners to do. Each day I take a walk through my two gardens. I inspect soil, plants, trees and everything else for problems. This is a huge time saver in the long run, because I catch problems early, making them easy to eliminate. I remove any weeds that pops up, check plants for aphids and wash any off. I check the soil with a probe for moister levels, PH and temperature. It usually only takes 30 minutes out of the day, and I enjoy this time in the early morning. It’s a wonderful way to start the day listening to the birds, and drinking my coffee. This is also the time, when I start thinking about what to pick for that days meals. It’s relaxing and good for stress, since once done, I know if there are any urgent problems or not. My husband gets up earlier than me (at sunrise), and he also takes his coffee outside having a peaceful morning.
I hope this is useful for you.

Thank you, Ulla, this is great!
I'll see if I can make friends with excel.
I do use my paper agenda to keep track on things to do and done, on daily, weekly and monthly basis, and I make a point of writing down what made me happy or grateful every day.
Slowing down and mindfully taking in the surroundings in the morning: such a golden tip.
Thanks again!