It's the Greenhouse Thread 2024

[daisychain01]

I thought I'd start a new thread for those of us who enjoy pottering around in the greenhouse. I bought a new Rhino Greenhouse during the pandemic to stop me going crazy and it been the best investment ever. I've been out there today scrubbing the floor area (a mix of slabs and brindles) and sanitising the staging ready for the new season.

I was a little bit worried that I may run out of steam with it, because it can be hard work and labour intensive, but I've had to master the art of moderation because it's easy to fall into the trap of filling the greenhouse with too many plants and then finding it takes over your life due to being labour intensive.

if there's one bit of advice I'd give, it's Less is More.

this year I've resolved to grow fewer tomatoes, but try to look after the plants better. Last year I tried growing 4 different varieties and I was disappointed with the yield. I might as well have bought them in Tesco, the piddly amount I ended up with and the amount of effort it took. So I'm limiting myself to only 3 plants in 1 grobag (hozelock with the irrigation chamber underneath), and training them properly rather than letting them run riot, and use the other grobag for chilli.

Ive got a nice stretch of staging the length of the greenhouse so I'll try some herbs and get some plugs - apart from lettuce which are dead easy to grow from seed, I'm going to stick with plugs which give me a head start from April onwards. I'm hoping for a better Spring that the freezing wet one we had in 2023!

anyway enough of my grumbles. Here's to an exciting 2024 in the greenhouse. Join in for advice, shares, photos and tales of triumph and woe.

I have (on impulse) bought another mini plastic-covered greenhouse substitute that is so badly designed, the slightest puff of wind means it gets deposited upside down on the other side of the garden. Stupid thing.

But in my functioning mini greenhouses I have some spinach seedlings coming up, which is nice. I need to get on with planting my other Feb seeds, I think some of the brassicas need to get started off soonish.

My greenhouse is small but I love pottering in it so I'm joining for inspiration!

At the moment my greenhouse is home to autumn sown sweet peas, my cactus collection which I’m running down, overwintering dahlias, and purple sprouting and kale sheltering from the pigeons.

My advice would be to buy the biggest one you can afford to fit in your garden.

I store a lot of not hardy plants in pots and garden furniture in over the winter

I've found a lot of the things I've overwintered in my greenhouse haven't done well at all, not sure what the problem is as they're all meant to be hardy!

Verbena cuttings have completely perished, sweet peas have damped off, snapdragons are still with us but not looking great. It's very disappointing!

Lack of light, I think. Combined with prolonged cold and wet.

Or to put it another way, the lack of light means things stop growing and then they’re vulnerable to the cold and damp, and things start rotting off.

I lost some of my sweet peas this year, which isn’t usual.

Total greenhouse newbie here. My Christmas present was a 180 cm x 70 cm lean-to greenhouse. I am really hoping it will be big enough to grow some annuals and veg from seeds for the garden and flowers from seed for my patio tubs and hanging baskets.
In the winter I’m hoping to put my less hardy patio plants in it.
I hope that I am not being unrealistic.
Does anyone have any tips or advice?

How did I miss this thread?

OP please report back on whether you manage to grow fewer tomatoes this year and if so, how. I've made the same resolution each year for the last 10 years and haven't managed it yet. I think I'm a lost cause 😂

Ooo now that's a real coincidence @MereDintofPandiculation I also have quite an array of cacti in the greenhouse. I haven't decided what to do with them!

Will come back on this thread over the weekend as I've got a long weekend ahead, and some greenhouse plans I can share which may or may not be of interest 😊

I also have some overwintered chard that is doing quite well. 👍

My chard is outside. The pigeons don't go after it.

Well, my resolution may be tested to the limit ....

I've found three packets of tomato seed in my stash and have looked up the varieties on Gardeners' World which is my normal go-to general purpose website for advice (along with RHS of course), and 2 out of 3 varieties are highly rated in an article on tomatoes.

https://www.gardenersworld.com/plants/top-tomato-varieties-to-grow/

The varieties are Moneymaker and Cherry Sungold, which I think a MNer also mentioned.

So I'm going to have to give them a try, 🤔 but I'll limit myself to 2 cells each of my recycled mini-seedling strips.

This weekend has been particularly challenging weatherwise - yesterday morning we woke up to several cms of snow which has only just cleared as it has been sunny today but still very cold.

Im going to do my planting indoors, put them in the propagator so I can move them between the house and the greenhouse depending on temps. Temps in the greenhouse today were up to 20deg due to strong lunchtime sun, which is a good heat for germinating.

My greenhouse is tiny and a battered second hand thing with quite a few cracks and gaps. But I love it. I have a potting station at one end and room for a few seed trays on metal shelving. I have sown calendula,chamomile,sage,nicotiana and cornflowers.
It also has a resident mouse who so far is happy with the wild bird seed and is leaving the plants alone.

In general, the weather has not been kind to the gardener so far this year. I'm already behind with my planting and maintenance, and it's only the start of March. A few more days of no rain would be very welcome here.

@Hedjwitch your greenhouse sounds ideal, you can grow and plant in there and it's protected from the elements (wind being the most damaging for small tender seedlings), so you're all set up for success.

We have had 3 sweet little mice through this winter, who habitually come into the utility room, end up in the recycle box and then can't get out, so I take them out and pop them into the back field otherwise they'd be nibbling and messing everywhere!

i had 1 productive weekend recently @HazelTheGreenWitch when it was dry and mild, so was able to scrub the in and outside of the greenhouse and that's been my lot. I had high hopes of a long weekend of gardening and didn't reckon on all the snow which really frustrated my plans. Hoping for a couple of hours of dry this morning, to finish the snowdrops and pots, then I bet I'll be back indoors as rain is forecast. Some dry weather would be nice!

The constant rain means that my allotment has been flooded for weeks. I'm glad I didn't plant my garlic in the autumn like everyone told me to, as it would not have done well. Instead it is in modules in one of my mini greenhouses, taking up lots of space! It'll have to go outside soon as I'll need the space for seedlings. My brussels sprouts seedlings have started to pop up (Brodie and Evesham Special).

Just following for now as my greenhouse is still disassembled in the garage. One day..

I have a mini wooden greenhouse like the one pictured. I'm utterly envious of anyone with a proper one, and especially anyone with a Rhino one as I rather lust after those.
Still, mine does the job for protecting seedlings in my windy garden. It's weighed down by a patio slab to stop it taking off, and is looking a bit worse for wear after all this rain. I might need to give it a sand down and see if we have any wood treatment hanging about.
It doesn't have much in it at the moment but that'll change this month as I get some more seeds going for the veg bed and the allotment.

Oops, forgot the photo.
Mine doesn't look all nice and neat like this!

This is mine....before i put the potting table in. Will take an updated one tomorrow

Nice photos @Hedjwitch how are your Brussels Sprouts doing? I tried growing Kallette last year and they were a disaster, lots of thick leathery leaves and no kallettes to be seen! @SweetPeaPatch sanding yours down and retreating it will give it a new least of life.

I spent 2.5 hrs yesterday afternoon painstakingly splitting my tiny lettuce and chard seedlings. I see it a bit like decorating, most of the investment is in the prep work, it pays dividends later! in this case, the replanting takes ages, fiddly work and needs the right mix of compost and vermiculite.

They were very congested as lettuce seeds are so tiny, but they quickly respond to the right amount of space and moisture. This photo was from yesterday, in a couple of days they'll look very perky!

The temps in the greenhouse are still low at night, only 3.5 C but in the day when the sun has come out like Mon, they shot up to 28 C so I'll put the trays out there in the day which will bring them on. This will give us 3-4 weeks worth of salad, and I've planted a new batch of Cos, Radicchio and a variety called Crocchanti which is a reddish frilly iceberg. I found a couple of packets of Rocket, so I'll plant them next.

I just realised I posted on this thread earlier in the year in anticipation of getting going in my new greenhouse. I have bought some tomato plants as well as cucumber and pepper. I have sown lettuce and chilli (I couldn't find an actual plant in my local garden centre). I am starting small but am very excited to see what grows well. It's not a big greenhouse.

I had some sweet pepper seeds that for weeks were doing absolutely nothing on the kitchen windowsill, so I relegated them to the mini greenhouse. It must be much warmer in there as they germinated almost immediately!