Gardeners advised to keep their greenhouse cool

Gardeners have been offered advice on how to keep their greenhouse cool during the warmer months. The guardian provided the advice in its lifestyle and gardening blog.

The blog’s writer, Lucy Halsall, who is editor of Grow Your Own magazine, said: “It’s still early in the year, so clear skies in your area will mean night time temperatures plummet (5C at night isn’t uncommon at the moment) so vents and doors need to be closed and heaters put on.

But by day we’ve been hitting 20C outside in many places – in a sealed up greenhouse this can rise to over 35C if you’ve forgotten to open the vents and doors, which is a death sentence to many plants (both seedlings and lush, more mature plants mollycoddled by the protected environment).”

Lucy also advised gardeners to work out how many vents they need and stated that “air movement is just as important as ventilation.”

“As air warms it rises, so you can suck cool air into your greenhouse with slatted louver vents fixed to the lower walls, while simultaneously opening roof vents to encourage the warm air to leave,” she said.