Friday 1 February 2008

My Greenhouse!


Never again will my kitchen floor become a jungle of seedlings! Never again will I have to unknot the poor leggy things before planting them out! Having received loads of garden centre vouchers for Christmas, I finally went out and bought myself a greenhouse for raising seedlings at home. Only a tiny greenhouse, but I only have a tiny garden (and only a tiny allotment, so there isn't room for one there either).
After my very late start last year I wanted to get an early start this year, and with the help of a fleece cover and a thick polystyrene floor it's actually maintaining a half-decent temperature inside, so I've begun already!
I've sown lots of herbs, spinach and lettuce seedlings, parsnip seeds, and all sorts of 'companion' flowers for planting out as soon as spring hits - poppies, calendula, petunias, achillea, marigolds, hyssop etc. (Some of the more sensitive ones, I should add, are indoors on windowsills.) I know I'm taking a bit of a risk and it might be too early for some things, but I can always make another sowing later, right?

Today I intend to sow some broad beans too. I meant to start them back in November for an earlier harvest, but I forgot I'd even bought the seeds until I found them while reorganising, last week! I won't plant too many - my perception of broad beans is a little scarred by the memory of the rubbery-skinned frozen ones I was fed as a child, but I reckon fresh and popped out of those nasty skins I'd probably like them much better...


I have also bought myself one of those pressure pump spray bottles for watering seedlings - no more hand-crippling manual pump sprays for me! You just pump it up a few times then hold the lever down, and the air pressure does all the work. It's a joy! And only £1.49 from Wilkinsons!

3 comments:

John Going Gently said...

hi there
My allotment was a first for me last year
just digging out my plots at the moment
nice to see a fellow fan of the soil, even though i am a real starter at all this
john

welsh girls allotment said...

Hiya - make sure you put something very heavy on the bottam shelf of your greenhouse - I have one of these and anything more tham a gentle breeze and it is very lucky to stay upright - as I found out in the Autumn - I now have a breeze block on the shelf to stop it happening again !!

Nome said...

Thanks for popping by!

And thanks for the tip - our garden is pretty sheltered but I've put a couple of bricks in the bottom anyway to be on the safe side...

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