The all new 2019 growing your own thread!

Primrose

Some words of advice to anybody contemplating buying one of those mini greenhouses with the plastic covers.

1. The metal structure rods which form the roof support get very hot if the greenhouse is located in a hot sunny area and can very quickly actually burn holes in the plastic covers where the cover comes into contact. To prevent this happening, wrap some kind of protective cloth "bandage" around the angled metal roof supports to prevent direct contact with the plastic cover. I used Jey clothes which have stood the test of time over several years.

2. These structures are very vulnerable to wind and can topple over easily causing you to lose all your plants. Mine is against the house wall, anchored to it with two large hooks and a nylon luggage strap passed through these hooks and around the structure, about two thirds of the way up its height. This precaution has kept it firmly in place despite some very wild wild winter gales.

Primrose

And another tip for those who like to grow mixed salads. To get ahead of the game, buy a punnet of those mixed Living salad leaves from the greengrocers section of your supermarket They usually cost about £1, have masses of tiny plants in them and if you plant them out individually they will give you masses of salad plants. Cheaper than buying strips of lettuce from a garden centre

I plant these for succession picking and even grow them through winter, protected by cloches.

unrecordings

Primrose wrote: »

Some words of advice to anybody contemplating buying one of those mini greenhouses with the plastic covers.

1. The metal structure rods which form the roof support get very hot if the greenhouse is located in a hot sunny area and can very quickly actually burn holes in the plastic covers where the cover comes into contact. To prevent this happening, wrap some kind of protective cloth "bandage" around the angled metal roof supports to prevent direct contact with the plastic cover. I used Jey clothes which have stood the test of time over several years.

2. These structures are very vulnerable to wind and can topple over easily causing you to lose all your plants. Mine is against the house wall, anchored to it with two large hooks and a nylon luggage strap passed through these hooks and around the structure, about two thirds of the way up its height. This precaution has kept it firmly in place despite some very wild wild winter gales.

I'd already gone off the idea, it was one of those ten minute obsessions - I was going to fix it to a spare bit of workshop wall, but thanks for the excellent advice

unrecordings

Primrose wrote: »

And another tip for those who like to grow mixed salads. To get ahead of the game, buy a punnet of those mixed Living salad leaves from the greengrocers section of your supermarket They usually cost about £1, have masses of tiny plants in them and if you plant them out individually they will give you masses of salad plants. Cheaper than buying strips of lettuce from a garden centre

I plant these for succession picking and even grow them through winter, protected by cloches.

Funnily enough this is one of tomorrow's jobs, tidy up the cold frame and sow some micro greens (actually just a mix of whatever is well past its sowing date)

MartinGardener

The metal frames mini greenhouses with the plastic tarp covers are awefull unless no wind will ever touch them!
I've recently bitten the bullet and cleared a space for a little 4x4 aluminium framed greenhouse from Greenhouse Stores. Well worth it, as I know it won't disappear overnight if the wind gets up!

Suffolk_lass

DH replaced the missing perspex pane in the roof of my last-legs greenhouse yesterday so when I return from my trip (imminent holiday) I shall move my chillies and tomatoes out there and get the squashes, cucumbers, s/corn and beans going.

In the meantime my cousin has been round and between us we have weeded the remaining veg beds (I have ten) with one exception, and I have sown salad seeds in the former strawberry bed. The other strawberry bed is the one that still needs doing but my priority is clean pots to move the tomato and chillies on from their newspaper and toilet-roll pots before I go away so the cat sitter can look after them.

DH might have to plant the carrot, beets and parsnip seeds one evening and also the onion sets that have been sitting in the kitchen for a month!

Mnd

Broke my own rules about planting out too early and bought some lovely lettuce and brassica plants at B and M..raining here now so planting up tomato and resowing peppers this morning

Mnd

CAFCgirl, glad to hear your scan wasn't too bad, it did remind me when I had to have one and choose Queen as the music, the first track was Who wants to live forever! I think they were trying to tell me something:eek:::eek:

unrecordings

Exhausted today, didn't get any planting/sowing done yesterday but fixed up my two deep raised beds which were beginning to split (I'm putting that down to last summer's heatwave). Rain here for the next couple of days, so I'm going to take it easy

Mnd

:beer:don't blame you ,have a day off, I am:beer: