Saturday 3 September 2011

Greenhouse Versatility

I love my greenhouse.  I use it for all sorts of things, not just for growing tomatoes.  It is my refuge.  When the weather is too bad  to be out of doors, I can spend a few hours sowing seeds, transplanting, tidying up, watering.  I even used to have a rattan armchair in there, for reading the Sunday papers.  It is my equivalent of having a garden hideaway.  In fact, the only reason I wanted to buy this house was because the greenhouse was already there.  The previous occupants hadn't exactly placed it in the best position in the garden, but I was blowed if I was going to move it for aesthetic reasons, so it stayed where it was.  We have never lost a pane of glass in gale force winds, mainly because it is sheltered by a huge Willow tree, which incidentally, brushes all the 'Cool Glass' off the greenhouse roof, with its long branches. 

I use it for storage of winter vegetables and tender plants and grow winter lettuce in grow bags, which withstand everything that winter can throw at them.  So you see my greenhouse is vital to my gardening operation, I couldn't manage without it.

I have plenty of space in there now the Tomato plants have been taken down.  Let me take you for a tour:-
At ground level I have containers of Rocket, Pak Choi and Salad Leaves, then Carrots and Dwarf beans in pots.
On the shelves I have Coriander and Flat Leaf Pasrsley, Geraniums and Chilli Peppers
Beans drying, Beetroot awaiting attention, Onions and Apples

Tomatoes ripening, courgettes and Sage cuttings taking root  - all confirming that it is a hive of activity, all year round.

What goes on in your greenhouse - could you live without it?

11 comments:

  1. I don't have a greenhouse but I would love one someday. For now I am happy with my polytunnels. Your greenhouse is certainly a hive of productive activity.

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  2. I wish I had one...it would help with starting seedlings and having lots of veggies in the winter. Yours is lovely, and I can see you would never want to do without it.

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  3. Echo what Sage Butterfly posted, the things I could do if I had a greenhouse....

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  4. I don't know whether it is the down to the greenhouse or to your own green fingers, but you have certainly managed to produce a profusion of lovely veg - and what a riot of colour too!

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  5. What a colourful greenhouse :)

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  6. I love my greenhouse, if I move it will come with me somehow. Its only small and wouldnt take a sofa but it works hard all year. There is never any clear surface and I have become very good at space management.

    At the moment it has chillis, agave seedlings, cucumbers, passionflower, various trays of seedlings, and my small species geranium collection.

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  7. I seem to spend a lot of time shuffling things about to fit everything in, but that's the nature of the beast if you use it to full capacity.

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  8. I don't have one, but certainly would if I could especially after reading this post! Flighty xx

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  9. I can understand your motivation for buying the house! I spotted a marvellous ramshackle old house for sale on the Isle of Wight with a spectacular greenhouse (wood and glass over brick) in the back. I wanted that greenhouse so badly! The following year we went back, the house had sold, the greenhouse had been pulled down. People have different dreams I guess. I would love a greenhouse/potting shed and would spend many happy hours there. Caro xx

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  10. Caro - that is sacrilege I would love a proper wood and brick one but have to make do with aluminium - can't win 'em all.

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  11. I love my newly cleaned and renewed greenhouse. I've had it for about 25 years. It was full of tropicals planted that literally filled the whole 8x12 space. I would just water the whole inside for humidity as well as watering. There must have been thousands of slugs that had been living, eating and breeding over the decades of perfect climate. Lucky slugs. It tools several days of very hard work but it is clean. Not totally slug free, but now if I go in at night I might find five, where a few months ago, there would have been five per square foot. Not exaggerating! I am loving it now full of tomatoes and basil. I can't wait to start m bedding plants early next year. Yes, I love my greenhouse and can't imagine my new veggie growing passion without it.

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