Plastic greenhouses

[fee77]

I have just bought one of those four teir plastic greenhouse jobbies - i am hoping to start off my beans and tomatoes in there - does any one have any advice.
Is it too early to start them?

I sowed a load of stuff easter weekend, then some more last weekend, tomatoes included. My sweet peas are sprouting shoots, as are my marigolds, but nothing from the other stuff yet.

Hope you have lots of fun with yours, I love mine!!

The only tiny prob i have is that watering can be a bit tricky!! I bought a smaller watering can, that helps!!

Have one too.....and had great results......you have to be careful with very young, tender plants if we have another sharp frost....but the danger of all frost has usually passed by the start of May. Have fun.

i bought 4.... so far one cover has ripped, cos dd wanted to keep unzipping it... and one fell over in the wind and i lost a load of seed that i had sown.... so stand it somewhere it cant fall down, and dont let kids fiddle with the zips!

I've also just acquired a plastic greenhouse but only three shelves. I put my potted lilies and agapanthus in there and some penstemons to grow on. I also put begonia and dahlia tubers in there but have brought them indoors tonight as it's flipping well been snowing today! We're going to try runner beans as well but I've decided to get ready-germinated sweet peas. Because we're so far north they sometimes don't germinate in time or get nipped by Jack Frost if they go out too early.

I've put a grow-bag on the bottom shelf of mine as a weight and so far, despite some really strong winds, it has stayed upright.

I did have a problem with snails getting inside. They were hiding inside the shelf supports during the day and munching my dephiniums and lupins at night! I've resorted to slug pellets and they've given up now.

The other thing was I had to put trays on the shelves because I'd planted some of the big stuff like hollyhocks straight into peat pots and they kept falling over on the wire racks. I'm worried it makes it a bit dark for the things underneath but they seem to be ok so far.

Fuuny you should say that about peat pots, Pixel as that's exactly what had happened to mine when I checked yesterday. I've run out of trays so must get some more. The weather here is dreadful again, blizzards all day and the afternoon temperature was a heady -1.5degC!!!

Thanks - i was worried i had wasted my money. I haven't got round to planting anything yet - i seem to spend most of my time picking it up. Bloody wind!

I've got one, but mine grows football boots, footballs, barbecue charcoal and slug pellets. (Makes an excellent small waterproof cupboard outside the back door - unless a slate slips and lacerates the plastic.)

Wahwahwah - my greenhouse has fallen over. What a mess, compost everywhere, plants out of their pots, some have disappeared! And my carefully written labels are all muddled up so I don't know what's what. Poo.

Suedonim - this happened to my old one about a month ago. DS2 was very distressed, but I scooped everything up and plonked it all back in the seed trays, and all the seeds germinated! I had to let them grow on for a bit longer so that I could tell the difference between the pumpkins, sunflowers and courgettes! But other than that it was fine.

Thanks, Roisin. I did a lot of scooping, as well!! It's pouring with rain here today and I wasn't a happy bunny, playing at mudpies in the wet.

I know, it just hasn't stopped here! I've got some leek seedlings which are desperate to be planted out, but I couldn't face the mud today. They'll have to wait til the weather brightens up a bit.