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Essential Greenhouse Supplies: A Comprehensive Checklist

When setting up your new greenhouse, make sure you have the essential greenhouse supplies. The right tools and setup will ensure your garden’s success. With the right greenhouse supplies, you can even automate some of the daily tasks required for a thriving garden and make it easier to have a healthy, beautiful greenhouse.

Using automation and tools, you can give your greenhouse plantings the best chance for success. Using the right tools for the job makes a difference when organizing, preparing, and potting your plants. With the best greenhouse supply products, you get the most out of your garden and maximize its potential.

If you’re getting ready for greenhouse gardening, keep reading to learn about these must-have greenhouse supplies!

Growing geraniums inside a greenhouse. Greenhouse supplies.

Greenhouse Supplies for An Automated Set Up

1. Drip Irrigation and a Timer

Soil and water are the primary factors determining the health of your plants. When it comes to watering, one of the best greenhouse supplies you can get is a drip irrigation system and a timer. This creates a fully automated watering system for your plants

The Rainbird Garden Drip Kit includes everything you need to install drip irrigation in your greenhouse. The included nozzles allow you to control the volume of water that each plant gets according to its needs.

A drip irrigation system alone won’t allow you to automate your watering, you also need a timer so that your plants get water at the right time and in the right amount. The Rainbird Hose End Timer allows you to do just that.

With these two greenhouse supplies, all you need is a hose spigot and the system completely handles your watering. This makes it easy to keep the plants in your greenhouse hydrated and healthy. You can also schedule your plants to get water at the right time of day to prevent burning.

A drip irrigation system for a greenhouse.

2. Automatic Vent Opener

A greenhouse can get so hot that it burns or kills plants, so regulating the interior temperature is critical to your garden’s health. But unless you are always home and monitoring it, a greenhouse’s temperature will change with the weather and can be just as unpredictable.

Using automation can further help to regulate the temperature of your greenhouse. The Bibistore Solar Vent Opener is an essential greenhouse supply that can help you keep the temperature right. A solar vent has a built-in thermostat that automatically triggers at your target temperature, opening your greenhouse vent.

Automating vent control gives you the peace of mind that your greenhouse will always maintain the right temperature. This device is best suited for prefabricated greenhouses that come with a hinged window.


Greenhouse Supplies for Working Efficiently

The interior of a wooden frame greenhouse with a potting bench work, shelves of pots, and various plants growing inside.

3. Potting Bench

When it comes to being efficient in your greenhouse, you need a workplace. A potting bench should be one of your first greenhouse supply purchases. Potting benches are attractive, give you a surface to work on, and provide a place to store supplies.

The Veikous Wooden Garden Potting Bench has a stainless steel sink that gives you a place for watering plants or getting dirty jobs done. Cleanup afterward is easy because the sink is removable. The bench gives plenty of working and prep space, and the removable drawer provides storage which can be handy if you don’t have a tool shed.

A potting bench offers convenience, organization and can add character to your greenhouse. It’s the ideal place to prep your plants and seed trays and later transfer them into pots.

4. Garden Tool Kit

There’s no more essential greenhouse supply than a good set of garden tools. A complete kit can cover all your needs and make gardening easier because you’ll have the right tool for the job. The Chryztal Garden Tool Set has everything you need to care for your garden.

This kit comes with a hand rake for pulling up dirt and roots or breaking up clumps; a soil scoop for adding and removing soil from your pots; a small trowel for digging planting holes; a weeder for pulling up unwanted pest plants, a pruner for trimming, and a cultivator for pulling up your plants together. It also comes with a carrying bag to keep everything organized.

When it comes to greenhouse supplies, a tool kit is essential for indoor gardening. With the right tools, you can plant more precisely, create a healthy environment for your plants, and perform maintenance like weeding and pruning.

A greenhouse garden tools kit.

5. Shade

If you don’t have a greenhouse with a hinged window or don’t want to add a vent, shading can help keep the temperature in check. An inexpensive solution like the Coolaroo UV Block Shade Fabric is perfect for either a hoop house or a traditional greenhouse.

This is a great alternative greenhouse supply to an automatic vent. Shade fabric is easily attached to and removed from your greenhouse. You can use it to cover a specific side of the structure to create one side with shade and one with full sun.

This is one of the lowest-cost greenhouse supplies on the list and a great option for anyone on a budget who needs to lower the inside temperature. This can also create a cooler space for you to work in, such as above your potting bench.


Greenhouse Supplies for Indoor Gardening

6. Seed Trays

A starter tray of tomato seedlings.

Once you have the right tools, workspace, temperature control, and water system, you’re ready to start planting. For seed-starting greenhouse supplies, you need seed trays like the 162 Cell Seed Starting Tray from Hoss Tools. This tray allows you to start up to 162 plants simultaneously. With one of these trays, you can start a garden’s worth of seeds!

Seed trays are an easy way to start seeds for the growing season. A seed tray is a more effective use of space than individual starter pots, so it will help keep you organized and maximize your space utilization.

7. Plant Labels

You don’t want to leave anything to chance regarding the seeds you’ve planted, and knowing what you planted (and where) is crucial! Using garden plant labels means you don’t have to rely on your memory, and they take the guesswork out of wondering if that’s a pumpkin or a cucumber seedling ready to go into the garden.

The ink on your labels needs to resist fading from the sun and running from humidity or spraying the seed-starting mix. The wooden garden labels from Hoss Tools come with a garden marker that stands up to all gardening conditions.

Starter trays with garden plant labels.

8. Shelves

If you want to maximize the space in your greenhouse, a set of shelves like the Amazon Basics Shelving Unit can help you manage space. Shelf space is a key greenhouse supply for maximizing your growing potential, allowing you to stack your plants vertically.

Wire shelves allow for good drainage and won’t collect spilled dirt like solid shelves. Adjustable shelves can also accommodate different height plants and configure to different setups. This should be one of the first greenhouse supplies you purchase to set up your growing space and hold plants.

9. Pots

Pots are, of course, an essential greenhouse supply. Once your plants exit the seedling phase, they must be potted up. You can then move the pots to your new shelving units. Make sure you have a variety of pot sizes, as different plants require different sizes for their root growth.

There are many choices for pot material, but plastic pots will be the least expensive and are surprisingly durable. No matter what pots you choose, make sure you match the weight capacity of your shelves to the size and weight of your pots once full of soil.


Setting Up For Success

A custom-built walk-in greenhouse in a garden.

When it comes to ensuring your greenhouse’s success, the right greenhouse supplies are key to maximizing your potential.

With the right drip irrigation and water timer, you can get perfect watering done without touching the hose. Temperature control with vents or shade fabric is the next key to your greenhouse’s success. A potting bench workstation, garden tool kit, and seed-starting products round out the essential items for a greenhouse setup.

The right greenhouse supplies will get you started with greenhouse gardening, but there’s more to know. Check out our page on Greenhouse Gardening for other blog posts and helpful guides for growing indoors!

Want more garden content? Visit our gardening page for in-depth guides, explainer posts, and great ideas!