Secrets of Year Round Gardening Revealed

Why Growing Dome® Gardening is Unique and Easy.

Gardening in a Growing Dome is different.

It’s different in a good way. It’s easy. It is not like growing outside, and compared to growing in a regular greenhouse, they are as different as night and day.

Plants do grow easily in the Growing Dome. However, to fully harness the advantages of a Growing Dome, to optimize its indoor ecosystem for year round gardening, it helps to understand why it is different.

In this video, Udgar shows you how the uniqueness of the Growing Dome allows for successful year round growing. Equipped with the right knowledge, it really is easy. Enjoy the video.

Uniqueness of the Growing Dome

There are some significant differences between growing in a Growing Dome, traditional greenhouse gardening, and growing outdoors.

First: Geodesic Shape Creates Unique Space

The curved dome allows growing on three different levels. You can see we are growing large foliage trees and plants to utilize the available vertical space.

The trees provide shade in the summer. In the winter, they lose their leaves, allowing the sun to warm the soil. When fully utilizing the unique space, the Growing Dome becomes an enclosed, indoor forest garden.

Greenhouse Growing on Three Different Levels

We also grow on a middle, intermediate level, with bushy plants like herbs and tomatoes.

Then finally, we can grow on a lower level. Down here, we grow lettuce and all of our root crops.

The first significant difference about greenhouse growing in a Growing Dome is the unique space it offers.

Second: Growing Dome Gardening Uses Soil Beds

Regular greenhouses generally use shelves, pots and racks for growing. However, we have soil beds inside the Growing Dome. The addition of actual beds, when used properly, help regulate temperatures throughout the year.

Often, people with regular greenhouses say, “Well it’s too hot to grow in the summer, so I’ll just use the outside garden. And it costs me an arm and a leg to heat it in the winter, so I don’t really grow in the winter.” A regular greenhouse is essentially a spring and fall gardening experience.

A Growing Dome offers year round growing.

Third: Year Round Gardening and Succession Planting

We practice succession planting in the Growing Dome according to how the “seasons” progress inside the dome. In the video, Udgar covers in detail the types of plants to grow throughout the time of year and according to the microclimates within the Growing Dome.

Since the dome is growing all year round, you need to make sure the soil stays fertilized.

Over the years, we’ve used different types of manure compost. We’ve used cotton burr compost, mushroom compost, plus different types of foliar sprays to keep the plants well nourished.

Fourth: Optimum Density

Plants grow prolifically and dense in a Growing Dome. Therefore, you do not want to plant too close together. When there is not enough space between plants, there is a propensity for mold or fungus. So, keep an optimum density of planting inside the dome.

Fifth: Microclimates

The other interesting thing about gardening inside the Growing Dome is the ability to grow in microclimates. Moreover, the microclimates change according to the seasons.

In the summer, it is hotter close to the polycarbonate glazing. This is where you want to grow all of your heat loving plants, such as:

• Beans
• Tomatoes
• Squash
• Peppers
• Eggplants, and much more

Plants next to the polycarbonate are in the hot zone in the summer. However, in the winter, it changes completely and becomes the cold zone. On cold winter nights next to the polycarbonate is the place for your most frost hardy crops.

Sixth: The Water Tank

Every Growing Dome has a water tank providing tremendous thermal stability, and creating an inviting water garden ecosystem. It’s an ambiance only water seems able to produce. In the winter, you put things that like a slightly warmer environment near the tank. In the summer, you put things that like a cooler environment. So, near the tank, it stays cooler in the summer and warmer in the winter.

Seventh: Pest Control

A Growing Dome is a pleasant place to be, especially in the winter. The plants love it, Growing Dome owners enjoy the greenery and space and for similar reasons, bugs and pests like it in there too.

That’s the downside. There is an upside. If you release beneficial insects such as ladybugs, praying mantis, and beneficial wasps they tend to stay enclosed in the Growing Dome: more so than they would in an outdoor garden.

Year Round Gardening in a Growing Dome is Really Easy

Things grow fast. They grow easily and readily. The Growing Dome creates an enclosed forest garden, an indoor ecosystem ideal for year round gardening. It is amazingly unique. Moreover, with the correct understanding of how growing in a Growing Dome is unique, you can keep your garden successfully growing all year round.

However, we do much more than just sell greenhouses. We provide a whole gardening experience.

To that end, here are resources we have available for you to use.

• YouTube channel We have videos on our YouTube channel that lead you through every step of the way from sowing seeds, to thinning, to transplanting, harvesting, pest control, soil amendment, and more.
• Growing Dome Enthusiasts You are here! Use our search bar function and drop down menu to find more on any topic you have interest in.
• Growing Spaces Blog and Website
• Growing Spaces Facebook Page Facebook Page: If you are contemplating purchasing a dome and you want to ask questions, there are many existing owners and would be Growing Dome Owners engaged in conversations here.
• Call us here at Growing Spaces at 800-753-9333 to talk to our dome advisors, gardener and for technical support. We are in the office Monday – Friday 8:00 am – 5:00 pm Mountain time. (We do close the last week in December every year.)