In our poll "How will you use, or plan to use, your greenhouse?", we ask about your use of a greenhouse and list five options:

1. To grow mostly flowers and other plants
2. To grow mostly veggies
3. To grow approx. equal amount of veggies and flowers and other plants
4. As a sunroom
5. Other

The wonderful thing about owning a greenhouse is the extreme versatility of them. Why not use your greenhouse for all of the above options and more? You can't really know how useful they are until you have one standing in your backyard. Even those attached to your home in the conservatory style will enable you to do so many different things that will add to the quality and pleasure of your life.

Here we will concentrate on the "other" uses. We have so many different regions and needs of each household, that not everything we think of will be something you will want to use, but knowing it in case your needs change will at least get you thinking about possibilities. I hope it will make you dream, change, become more creative in using what you have and take living to an art form.

Probably the first thing to look at is how to get more year round usage of your greenhouse. If you have a greenhouse connected to your home, conservatory style, it's rather simple to just walk inside on a sunny day and enjoy the warmth of sunshine without the bitter winds that blow in the winter. Access is never a problem, and the greenhouse will be warmed by the household heat. To treat yourself and others, you can plan to install a hot tub inside the greenhouse; put a comfortable seating area in it; entertain guest there; or just enjoy a slow glass of wine after the kids have gone to bed. Invite the ladies over for 'Tea in the Conservatory' and put on some low, soft music to go with tea and biscuits.

Plant flowering bulbs for your Christmas decorating plans in your greenhouse in the fall. Once the blooms are spent, the greenhouse is the perfect place to keep them until they have a chance to restore their energy.

Have you been thinking about a winter garden indoors. You will be pleasantly surprized at how much you can grow even in a small 4'x6' greenhouse. Utilizing crop rotation, successive planting, hanging pots, trellises and raised bed, you can pack a lot into a greenhouse over the winter.

Outside of winter gardening and entertaining, there are some other things a greenhouse comes in handy for.

• Repotting houseplants
• Doctoring sick houseplants
• Dividing, cleaning and showering plants
• Initial garden veggie food prep
• A place to keep a worm factory or composter in the winter
• A place to dry out leaves and other debris so you can shred it dry
• A safe place to let the pet rabbits out of the cage for some excersise
• A place to hide things, like Christmas or birthday gifts.
• Starting a new science project so it's not on the dining room table
• A protected and warm place to keep the new chicks you ordered until they are older
• A place with good light for a potter's wheel or artist's studio
• When full of greenery, an excellent photo shoot background any time of year.
• Overwintering plants susceptible to hard frost
• Store outdoor yard decorations or furniture over winter.
• Some people might include 'tool shed' use, but you should protect the panels from tool handles. Put a small tool shed inside to hold them
• Isolating exotic birds until they can be added to the aviary
• Winter housing for caged birds
• A warm quiet place for your female dog to have her pups, or cat her kittens

As you can see, this list could be expanded based on lifestyles, needs and how large the greenhouse is. A greenhouse is not just some elaborate toy, it's a useful, life-augmenting tool with many uses.