To Extend the season. You can grow things in the greenhouse and prevent them from freezing, extending the temperature of the growing season for a month at each end. But keep in mind that low tunnels, that only enclose the garden bed itself, can be just as effective and can be easier to manage during the summer when they are no longer needed.
This is true, but in some locations it isn't the temperature but the lack of daylight that limits the growth.
On October 11th, sunrise is 7:25 am and sunset is 6:25 pm for a total daylength of approximately 11 hours.
The threshold of 10 hour days is typically when plants stop growing and developing. On October 31st, daylength is approximately 10 hours. Actual daylight hours, including twilight, is about an hour longer.
On December 21, day length is 8:23 hours long in Virginia, the shortest day of the year. On February 10th, daylength again crosses the 10 hour threshold when the most cold-hardy plants begin growing again.
To give yourself a place to work. This is one of the more important functions of the greenhouse. The greenhouse can be a general purpose workspace to support the rest of your garden. It allows you to keep working in the garden even when its dark or raining. After work, after dinner, you still have a place to focus on your garden. You don't have to retreat indoors and abandon your thirsty plants. It can also be heated, at least temporarily, in the winter.
A place to start seedlings. One of the biggest factors in starting seedlings is a space to work and spread out the seeds trays.
Overwintering. The greenhouse can be a place where you move sensitive plants indoors to escape the frost and snow. In an unheated space, plants are still susceptible to deep sustained freezes. But a greenhouse can keep dormant plants from being killed by lower temperatures that they wouldn't survive outside in the elements.
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