Breaking News

Garden and Home

DOSS Products Introduces New Greenhouse

             DOSS Products (Fortuna, CA) has developed a revolutionary new design in greenhouses for the backyard gardener. The Veg-A-Lot™ “Growhouse” is a 40 sq ft soft white translucent Quonset hut structure designed as a top cap to a raised bed garden. Amazingly the 5 ft high structure has no “door,” instead each of the eight foot long side walls slide “up and down” like a roll-top desk. The 5 ft width easily allows the home gardener to garden first one side, then the other, without ever having to actually go inside. This unique design means that the entire enclosed space is available to the growing plants.

            Company spokesperson, Doyle Doss, explained “Our typical busy lives leave little time for the constant care even a small garden can demand. The Veg-A-Lot™ Growhouse allows the family gardener to plant and harvest in the same space while protecting the crop from almost all pests, the neighbor’s cats and dogs, and the local deer and raccoons. Once the soil bed is established, it needs almost no weeding, and watering is greatly reduced since the entire structure is enclosed and there is little water loss to wind and extreme sun.”

             Anyone who has been vegetable shopping recently has probably suffered sticker shock at the sudden rise in prices. Food production has become a very energy dependent big business. “Fresh vegetables and herbs can be easily grown in the backyard at a great savings and an even greater nutritional benefit,” says Mr. Doss, “but even if you have the space, who has the time? Any garden, even a Veg-A-Lot™ Garden, takes work and care. What we have done is try to eliminate the risks associated with gardening by completely enclosing the garden while still making it easily accessible. There is nothing more heartbreaking to a gardener that coming home finding the garden destroyed by loose animals or severe weather.”

            The soft white translucent glazing of the Growhouse allows 75% light penetration, which is ideal for almost all plants. Once the light is inside, it is reflected and refracted by the interior walls so the plants do not “know” where the light is coming from and grow more uniformly in all directions. Anyone who has placed a houseplant on a sunny widow sill has observed all the leaves “bending” toward the window within a day or so. But the interior of the Growhouse is a soft glow of light with no discernable source encouraging plants to grow evenly. Almost all commercial greenhouses use translucent glazing to “fool” plants into fuller more uniform growth.

             “We are not going to see food prices come down,” says Mr. Doss, “our Growhouse is ideal for a continuous supply of salad greens, root crops, garden herbs, and yes, even tomatoes, broccoli, and hot peppers. A lot of food can be grown in 40 square feet with French Intensive or Square Foot raised bed gardening techniques. And if 40 square feet is not enough, get two and have 80.”

            The Veg-A-Lot™ Growhouse is not a kit; it is completely assembled and available from DOSS Products for $795-. Additional photographs and more information are available at www.heatstick.com or e mail at vegalot@gmail.com.