How to Make a Fern House on the Side of a House

Preparation

• 1

  Choose the site. The east side of the house where it will receive morning sun or a side already shaded by trees is best. Avoid the south wall, since this will be too hot.

• 2

  Choose a commercially available lean-to greenhouse, conservatory or wood arbor. Erect this against the house per manufacturer's instructions. If you want an arbor to provide weather proof seating, add a roof, but the ferns will prefer being open to the rain.

• 3

  Provide shade and for outdoor fern houses a windbreak--plant large shrubs or small trees nearby. Grow climbing plants over the structure or add greenhouse shading. In summer an arbor can be draped with dark-colored shade cloth.

• 4

  Dig a hollow within this structure, so your fernery is a sunken garden. Planting ferns in a hollow helps create a stable environment where they can be kept damp and cool. The surrounding earth insulates the ferns from winter cold. If building an open-sided outdoor fern house, these banks provide a wind break. Pile the extracted earth around the rim of the hollow for added depth.

• 5

  Install a water feature. This can be running water, a fountain or pond. The presence of water helps keeps humidity high. Running water increases the fernery’s visual attractiveness and adds pleasing sounds. Alternatively install soaker hoses or a sprinkler system—particularly important if using a conservatory as fern house.

• 6

  Mark out beds for planting. Fill beds with any mix of composted pine bark, ericaceous compost, leaf mold or orchid compost, providing a light, moisture-retentive, mildly acidic growing medium.

• 7

  Set rocks or stumps into the beds and walls of the hollow. Building an uneven rock wall helps keep conditions shady and cool and provides useful niches for planting.

Planting

• 8

  Choose a selection of ferns of contrasting size and shape. Include some other moisture loving plants—astilbes, hostas--for contrasting shapes.

• 9

  Soak new ferns in buckets of water overnight before planting. Use rainwater if possible.

• 10

  Plant ferns, so the crown, the solid base of the plant from which the shoots grow, is barely above ground level.

• 11

  Water well. Continue to water daily until established. Conservatories will need twice daily watering all summer.