Growing from Seed in an Unheated Greenhouse

Mrs_B

At long last I have my greenhouse. :T I cannot tell you how many years that has been in the promising!

That said, I am no expert on greenhouse gardening, but would love to put something in there to occupy the masses of space not taken up by the few mini plugs growing on over the winter.

Does anyone have any suggestions for what seeds I could try to grow now? Ideally thinking about starting something that flowers, but equally happy to start something on the veg/salad side if that is an option.

There is no heating in there, and I do not have plans to heat it this winter.

Farway

You may be lucky with mixed cut and come again salad leaves

RAS

If you like them; mizuna and mustard greens - Giant red wave is one possibility.

If you see cheap japanese onion sets (left-overs) - grow an inch apart in a pot and pull as salad onions.

Start sweet peas - you may need a little heat to get them germinated but after that they need to grow cool.

And install a hanging basket, plant mange-tout peas and it keeps them out of the way of the mice. Keep it moist and you will get a small harvest overwinter.

wellused

I tried growing lettuce in some used grow bags in an unheated greenhouse and found that they suffered from mildew due to the atmosphere in the greenhouse being too damp with the window closed, of course I could have opened the window during the day and closed it at night but as it is on an allotment I couldn't get there every day to do it.

lisa110rry

Congratulations Mrs B! I know how much I love my greenhouse and you will too, no doubt.

I have cleared and cleaned my g/house for the winter and have tender pot plants from the garden taking shelter there now. I also bring in my hanging baskets (each rests on a pot) to save my fuschias for next year.

I also have a chair and a corkscrew in there and like to sit inside with a glass of something occasionally on the weekends and watch the birds on the feeders while listening to radio plays on iplayer...

savemoney

I have a unheated greenhouse at allotment which is bubble wrapped for winter. I have in there plants which may not survive winter at least gives them a better chance. I also growing broad beans, sweet peas for next year and some lettuce is in there I only sowed all of them a few weeks ago

Mrs_B

:)Many thanks to all of you for your ideas and suggestions, some of which happen to be very MSE without you even knowing my situation.

My veg plot has only just been revived, following illness and broken bones, and my first opportunity to plant this year was at the beginning of September, so anything that could be planted then, was. So, I happen to have an opened packet of salad leaf seeds, so it is definitely worth me using those up to see if they take.

I was also given some sweet pea seeds, but thought they needed a heated greenhouse - now I see I just need patience, which I can find.

And I bought some mange-tout pea seed earlier in the season when I thought I was going to plant them out - so that is definitely something to try. Do the mice eat the seed or the pods? Thinking another mouse trap may be required!

So, all I need to do is have a look out for some mizuna, mustard and Japanese onion sets, and my greenhouse will begin to look a little more used.

I just need to find a safe corner for the wine bottle - and my radio plays are all downloaded as podcasts, so looks as if that is part of my weekend taken care of.

I will let you know how I get on of course.

trollopscarletwoman

Mrs_B wrote: »

:)Many thanks to all of you for your ideas and suggestions, some of which happen to be very MSE without you even knowing my situation.

My veg plot has only just been revived, following illness and broken bones, and my first opportunity to plant this year was at the beginning of September, so anything that could be planted then, was. So, I happen to have an opened packet of salad leaf seeds, so it is definitely worth me using those up to see if they take.

I was also given some sweet pea seeds, but thought they needed a heated greenhouse - now I see I just need patience, which I can find.

And I bought some mange-tout pea seed earlier in the season when I thought I was going to plant them out - so that is definitely something to try. Do the mice eat the seed or the pods? Thinking another mouse trap may be required!

So, all I need to do is have a look out for some mizuna, mustard and Japanese onion sets, and my greenhouse will begin to look a little more used.

I just need to find a safe corner for the wine bottle - and my radio plays are all downloaded as podcasts, so looks as if that is part of my weekend taken care of.

I will let you know how I get on of course.

You could also start off garlic in modules.

lisa110rry

It will be lovely to hear how you get on OP - over the weekend, after all the jobs were done, it was a Bombay Sapphire and tonic for me in the greenhouse. (and 'Ercule Pwarow, lol!)

Mrs_B

Thanks to all of you for your suggestions.

I was slightly distracted this weekend as I was trying to replant the remaining hundreds of bulbs which had been dug out when OH rearranged the garden, then thinning out turnips, cauliflowers and pak choi in the veg plot, before they strangle each other, and I earthed up my potatoes - again. I do become slightly OCD in the veg plot - not a weed dare show its tips!

I did find enough daylight hours to plant up my remaining salad leaves seeds in a tray in the greenhouse, planted out some mangetout, and started off the packeted sweet pea seeds I had (including one free packet ).

This weekend should be calmer, so I am going to try using up my rocket seeds in the greenhouse, and then I have to work out how to tackle a bag of sweet pea pods which SMIL has given me. All suggestions welcome here, before I try out the wider forum. A quick inspection shows that trying to put five seeds in a pot is going to be :eek: They are way smaller than my packeted seeds, and I could be planting them out for the whole of War and Peace.

Yesterday I bought some mirzuna seeds, so that will be another job for this weekend. I also bought four bags of potting compost - looks as if I will need them if all these good suggestions keep coming in.

The top never made it off any bottle of alcohol - I obviously need a lot more practice at that. I did however work my way through a podcast or two - newer to me are "This American Life", "The Moth", and there's always the old favourite like The Archers to remind me of my green ambitions. :T

lisa110rry

Last weekend seemed too chilly to do much in the garden, and far too wet! Though I did go and check on my goldfish in the water butt and as the temperature is still above 10c, I gave them some food. Lots of cyclamen flowering in the greenhouse at present. Got to give the place a good clean outside and cut down some volunteer Leycesteria which is shading the glass, although it does give me some cover for bird watching.