Still quiet. Early February, weather still holding things back and oh how I long for better weather. As well as generally improving one’s mood, there are so many jobs and ideas that need a break in the frost and rain cycle that we seem stuck in; the occasional sunny day isn’t helping. The plants in the greenhouse – triffids (lilies), fuchsias, a buddleia cutting that we took, some herb seeds, and loads of other stuff – are all thriving but aside from general maintenance stuff that takes little time at all, it’s all on hold. We have a few plants indoors as well, including an orchid and an aeonium. The latter gets shunted into the grrenhouse if the sunlight looks promising, but doesn’t get out for more than a single day very occasionally. My temperature records off the greenhouse just reinforce how grim the weather has been.
|
||||||
|
Not much to report after severe winter weather. It did cause us to cut back on various plans and a lot of jobs and projects have been deferred as a result, We had bought some tree lilies and have been unsurprised to see how they are growing, particularly with a decent greenhouse heater in action due to the weather. Shots below of:
 tree lilies  over wintering
We’ll let it recover, then come up with an alternative as things develop… Having looked yet again at what’s around, I opted to make the greenhouse staging, because it is:
We also ended up with some pine staging! Two pine wardrobe doors were opportunely at clearance prices from a large diy store, so with a mending plate across one small crack we got a large piece of staging very cheaply indeed.
As a slight variation on the theme, a potting table was made as well. Slatted staging aids air circulation through the greenhouse and around the plants, and we preferred wider slats for our purposes than others might choose. Building the greenhouse took two of us just under two days and was relatively easy. One very useful tip for this particular set-up, not stated by manufacturers, is to invest in a durable and weatherproof rubber strip that can sit under the frame base, all the way round. In this case it helps hold the ends of the fabric in place, but its real benefits are:
Manufacturer’s instructions err on the side of caution, for understandable reasons. With experience, you know which instructions are more important than others. It didn’t apply in this case, but the general rule should be “if not sure, then follow the instructions”. Greenhouse ventilation is one of the most important aspects, and the second picture, shows the finished greenhouse structure with an optimum placement of roof vents diagonally opposed and louvres placed low in the sides on the other diagonal. This is the easy part, the real challenges await! The position of the greenhouse is convenient in our garden and fits a few of the conventional principles:
The nearby fences are not an issue. I intend to build a hedge at the rear as a windbreak. I am hoping to make the hedge of fuchsia magellanica from around next April, but there may not prove to be entirely straightforward. After a little deliberation I opted for an entirely gravel floor to the greenhouse, at least for the initial phase, with flagstones under the frame. The first picture shows things getting started, with some pegs marked up to measure heights from their top by putting a longer piece of wood atop them on which the spirit level can be placed. The blue bin is holding stones retrieved from the soil which went as hardcore for a drive. The pink waste bag is just a kneeler. Any turf that was dug out was turned upside down and buried beneath the soil I’m preparing to lawn. This old trick tends to keep weeds down while retaining decent drainage.
The second picture shows the outer flagstones almost complete, and the start of the greenhouse end of the trench for the electric cable. The inner layer of turf was being dug out, then needed levelling and more stones removing prior to putting in a weed fabric liner below the gravel bed. The flagstones are laid on sand and cement, in most cases using what I know as the star or five-point method, i.e. just the main blobs of sand and cement mix near the corners and in the centre of each flag. Since they won’t be taking much weight this is ok, but on the front end, nearest to the camera in the photos, as they will get more walking on, sand and cement was layered in. By the way, anyone interested in general points about building greenhouses might find one of the articles I’ve written about greenhouse gardening useful, which touches on some of the general planning ideas. Plenty of digging required for various purposes:
The cable was being put in by a qualified electrician but had to be buried 18 inches deep, which as one might have expected, turned out to be three inches deeper in parts than a clay layer – that wasn’t fun. Planning all this together with a few other preparatory jobs meant it could be done reasonably efficiently despite changeable weather, and three days over two weekends plus a few short evening sessions saw the digging finished by myself. At the same time, I removed any large stones, weeds, small stones in some areas planned for reseeding the lawn and a few bushes including some large ones. The stone went as hardcore for a neighbour’s drive, and the wood from the bushes, after being left to dry out for a few weeks, went to people who could make use of it. I found once again that working in focused, relatively short periods of say 1.5 to 2 hours on particular areas with decent tools worked well, especially around the weather. I refamiliarised myself with some of the soil and what else lay underneath, including “ant city” and a forest of nettle roots under some of the undergrowth! It also gave me chance to use some favourite tools, notably the trusty old mattock (similar to a pick axe) which comes into its own for this type of job. Hiring machinery to do just relatively small and slightly fiddly jobs didn’t seem sensible or time- or cost-effective. Within this same task I also put bricks around a disused manhole for the old drain, and put a repotted magnolia on top as a temporary measure. This keeps the drain accessible should it ever be needed and lifts the surface level up to where the new lawn is planned to be. The rear bed requires more digging but I’ve still not decided on the final plan for that so left my options open. Also further challenges await there; aside from some of the bush roots they include some buried tree stumps that I have a tentative plan for that hopefully avoids any probably futile attempt at their removal.
Recently we decided that we had let our garden drift to a point where we wanted to make changes. This subsequently developed into reintroducing greenhouse gardening into our hobby. Then we cleared quite a bit of the garden to address a few issues, including:
We are not new to this and above all, we knew that we could do more with it and enjoy the whole process. I should add that after we had started, we were further enthused by a holiday in Cornwall, rightly referred to by some as the “garden of England”. So our initial ideas revolved around:
……. while incorporating a few things that we wanted to do. Our garden is never going to be a model for paradise, but just somewhere pleasant to relax. Both my wife and I enjoy gardening or sitting reading or writing and watching birds, butterflies and wildlife. There are many aspects of gardening that I find interesting but overall I’m very much in favour of letting things evolve and watching the garden develop. I’d be concerned if I ever thought it was going to be finished. While we like testing things, seeing what works and what doesn’t, we also know that for the most part, plants will right themselves. They might need a little help from time to time. I’ve seen the idea of “mix and match” in gardens lectured against, but really you should do what suits you. I’m very much into the practicalities, take a “cheap and cheerful” approach whenever it’s merited although there are some false economies as I’ve sometimes learned. Most of all, I always take the view that my current plan for the garden might change and to me, that’s good. |
||||||
|
Copyright © 2010 Gardening tips - All Rights Reserved.
Privacy |
||||||
A hiccup. We have moved the magnolia back to its earlier position on the patio, nearer the house, after signs of frost damage to the leaves. It isn’t actually damage from frost but early morning dew on the leaves in its exposed position was then being caught by the sun coming around and over the house from first light, making it look similar to scorching.
There will be a vast range of scenarios based on greenhouse type and purpose, location and many other variables. The key is to plan and think it through.
