Second-hand Greenhouse (Miniature)

Friends who are moving out of the country said we could have their miniature greenhouse. Having assembled a makeshift one from old windows and attic beams, I wasn't about to say no. It needed some dis-assembly to get in it as far as the car, and then we realised that the size of the back panel - composed of solid pine beams and tongue-and-groove boards - meant it just wasn't going to go in, and that was it. So out came a hammer, and I took it apart, plank by plank, until it fitted.

Re-assembly therefore meant starting with remaking the back panel, and that started with taking out the rusty staples it had been put together with. Between a hammer to knock them flat in places, and a pliers to get them out where possible, I eventually got them all dealt with. And then on to the assembly. There's something very pleasing about working outdoors with wood on a sunny day.

Here's the final result:

That's now sitting at the back of the house, holding two tomato plants (one starting to groan with green tomatoes, the other only starting to produce a few; both have lots more flowers), a jalapeno pepper (flowers, no fruit yet, but I'm hopeful), and a small grape-vine, which we thought was dead, but has started to produce some small leaves again. Ideally, I think, it should actually be in soil, with a wall to climb on, but it's very small right now, and I think a year's coddling before we expose it to the outside world might be good for it.

One thing I would like to get would be a couple of small thermometers, which I'd mount where they can be seen in this and in the makeshift one. I reckon this will be hotter than the recycled one, so that gives three stages of heat - outside, recycled greenhouse, and good greenhouse, in increasing heat.

Greenhouse Blown Over

Disaster! My wife let me know on Tuesday evening that the greenhouse (and a pavilion structure we had up in the back garden from a barbecue) had blown over. By the time I got home, in with other stuff, I hadn't time to deal with it, so it had to wait until Wednesday evening. I saw this:


Whatever way the wind was on Tuesday, it contrived to push over the whole structure, pulling out the pins that run through the bottom bars and into the ground. Some of the bars are a little bent, but it stayed mostly intact. It did, however, pull over with it one tomato plant, one cucumber, one butternut squash, and one sweet pepper. Most of them seem ok, considering, but I'm not sure the cucumber is going to survive the experience.

I stood everything back up, re-pinned it, and put the plants back in:


And then while I was standing inside, it had a go at blowing over again. I was able to catch it and hold it down, but not to prevent the squash and cucumber from falling again. I then arranged two strings over it, tied to the shed on one side and pins in the ground on the other. I reckon it was a coincidence of wind direction and strength, because it's shown no sign of budging otherwise.


I have no idea if that will hold it, but it'll have to do for now. Before I put it to serious use next year, it's going to get a properly level area under it, and be attached firmly to the ground.

I'll let you know how the plants do, and if they survive bring tipped over...

Courgettes & Greenhouse Crops

Things are growing well in the garden. We had the first real produce two weeks ago; potatoes. The plants were starting to fall over, having not produced flowers, so I figured that for sprouting supermarket potatoes, they'd probably done all that they could. Up they came...



... and as you can see, the crop - this is from a plot of about two square feet, at the very most - was respectable enough. I steamed them, and they turned out very well indeed. Even the Lodger pronounced them excellent.



In the meantime, the courgette plant, the single one that came up, has gone from this protected little specimen:



... to this monster:



... and since then has gone into actual production. If it keeps going at the current rate, I reckon we'll be eating the first courgette around the end of this week.

In the greenhouse, things have boomed:



The front left is a butternut squash,the front right a greenhouse cucumber. They're already about twice as big as in this picture (taken only a week ago), and are starting to produce flowers, so I'm hopefully of some cropping from them soon. I recall having to pinch out the tips of squashes before, but I'll do some research before I try it on this one. The cucumber is doing a rather cool thing where any joint of the plant that reaches the ground starts to develop roots. Behind them are the two tomato plants, which have thus far produced two fully ripe tomatoes and host of as-yet unripe ones, and the sweet pepper, which has just today developed some tiny buds that look like they might yet become peppers.

And finally, we have blackberries growing in our hedgerow:



I clipped back the ash and hawthorn that make most of the hedge today, and left about six good brambles protruding, all of which have berries at various not-quite-ripe stages of maturity. There's also a few good bunches well out of reach in the hedge, but they're close enough to the house that I think a ladder and some not-too-precarious leaning should reach them.

Greenhouse

On Saturday, after a visit to the National Botanic Gardens in Dublin with some friends, where they have a wonderful new vegetable and fruit garden, we dropped into a branch of B&Q to get various goods, mostly for the garden.

The main purchase was a plastic greenhouse and some plants to go in it. It's a Gardman one, and was very easy indeed to assemble.



This is the space pre-Greenhouse, with the box leaning up against the shed. As you can see, there was blazing sunshine on the day I assembled it.


This is me in the process of assembly. Note elderly garden work trousers (which have been to India when they were still wearable in public places). Also note slight canting of poles, due to uneven ground. The nettles by my right foot are not really visible in this picture.


Fully assembled, with some plants bought from B&Q installed. That's two tomatoes on the top left, a sweet pepper on the top right, and a butternut squash and a cucumber at the bottom left and right respectively. I know it's cheating, but I don't think anything planted from seed now will grow by the time it gets too cold. The nettles have done their fill of stinging at this stage.


And here's how it looks when it's zipped up, and the day has naturally dulled by a bit.

I'm not entirely sure how well it's doing. The plants are certainly still alive, but it never seems that much warmer in there than outside, and I'm a bit worried by the sheer number of bugs that wind up inside and don't get out. On the other hand, there are a few spiders in there, so maybe the mini-ecosystem will balance out. The uneven ground means that there's a fair bit of air getting in at the bottom, and I'm not sure if that's a problem or not. Most of the permanent greenhouses I've seen are pretty solid around the base.

I might construct something with some tiles and bricks for next year - a sort of semi-permanent base.