Greenhouse revival

[Toddy]

It's like rhodies. Needs a bit of care, but otherwise, I believe the toxic stuff rots down if they're properly composted. Not used as a mulch straight off kind of thing.

Leafmould | RHS Advice

Learn how to make leafmould from decaying leaves to create a free, nutrient-rich soil conditioner for mulching and improving garden soil.

www.rhs.org.uk

Funny the number of trees that we don't consider harmful that are in some ways toxic. Like the aesculin from chestnuts that de-oxygenates water.

 

[TeeDee]

How do people in the UK organise their growing season and seed planting? Do you have a special seed drawer? An expandable folder with each month ready to go? Calendar ? App??

Need to get this dialled in.

TIA

 

[Toddy]

You could buy yourself a subscription to Garden News or Kitchen Garden. They're not expensive, especially since they come with seeds They also work through the year saying things like it's time to sow......whatever; time to feed, crop, store....the first magazine costs about £2 a week, and you do get a lot of flower seeds though there are herbs and vegetable ones too.

Garden News Magazine Subscription

Garden News is Britain's most trusted voice in gardening with practical and informative advice features from experts, including Carol Klein. Plus, the step-by-step guides and how to tips and tricks are easy to follow and will ensure your garden is at it's best - whatever the weather!

www.greatmagazines.co.uk

Kitchen Garden though, costs £20 for six months, and comes with a lot of vegetable and herb seeds, not so many flowers.

Kitchen Garden Magazine Subscription

Save 28% on Kitchen Garden Magazine Subscription at isubscribe. Kitchen Garden magazine is for gardeners who love to grow their own fruit and vegetables in varied environments crops harvesting, horticulture, storing and cooking.

www.isubscribe.co.uk

 

[Toddy]

Meant to say that if you want the digital subscription, it's a lot cheaper, but you don't get the seeds.
If you do want seeds, find DT Brown's site, and if you buy any seeds, and everything I bought from them grew really well. Not F1 hybrid stuff, just ordinary good eating stuff
Anyway, they send you brilliant catalogues, with lots of information.

D.T. Brown | Shop Online Today!

Upgrade your garden with D.T. Brown, we have a selection of vegetable, fruit, and flower seeds, plant cuttings, garden tools and more. Order online today.

www.dtbrownseeds.co.uk

 

[slowworm]

How do people in the UK organise their growing season and seed planting? Do you have a special seed drawer? An expandable folder with each month ready to go? Calendar ? App??

Need to get this dialled in.

TIA

Memory mostly, after a few seasons you tend to remember when things need planting.

Most seed packets will have instructions and planting times on them so you can go through your packets and note down roughly when to sow them.

I also refer to our copy "The gardening which guide to growing your own vegetables" as it has a table at the back listing when to sow seeds, plant out, harvest and plant/row spacings all in a neat table.

 

[slowworm]

I'd also advise not trying to grow too much at first, i.e. not buying loads of different seeds and running out of space to grow them or plant them out. Try and narrow it down to want you really want to grow and grow what's worthwhile.

It's worth finding a reliable source of young plants as you don't need to worry about germinating difficult seeds or buying a whole packet when you just need one or two plants.

For example, we've grown lots of chillies from seed in previous years but in order to consentrate on the veg garden we've just bought two chillie plants this year. No need to germinate them and nurture some young plants without a heated greenhouse but easy to pick up two small plants for about £3 each and after a few potting up we now have two plants with over 50 chilies on each.

 

[TeeDee]

Maybe we could have a section somewhere in the forum for the newbie 'grow-a-long-gang' to be led and instructed by the older sweats.

 

[Robson Valley]

Buying seeds and planting seeds are two entirely different hobbies.
I like sprouted seed in salads and just to munch on. The store-bought stuff is good. I have spent a lot of money on seed to do the same at home. Nope, 5mm germination and everything has always quit. No, not even the company knows why. Nothing grows to an edible size.

 

[Toddy]

BR's got threads in that.....the Boss set up a section called The Homestead.

The Homestead

A forum for the more home based skills, seasonal preparations, growing food, keeping animals, preserving food and recycling, making and mending...

bushcraftuk.com

I like guerilla gardening, and I like bringing into my garden useful native plants. Though I am minded of the poem.......

I'm a weed by T R Milford

I'm a weed, I'm a weed,
One of the old untameable breed;
I never came from a packet of seed.

I am no cossetted nursery child,
Nobody keeps my pedigree filed,
I am wild, I am wild, I am wild!

Do you think, sister Pink,
That it's nice to line borders on somebodies orders?
The man who kindly plants you,
When he no longer wants you
will throw you out to rot.

Won't you speak, Mr. Leek?
Do you like being made to stand stiffly on parade?
He'll never let you flower
Who has you in his power;
He'll boil you in a pot.

Can I suppose, Lady Rose,
That you actually enjoy being treated like a toy,
While they play genetic games on you,
And stick their fancy names on you,
Caught in a breeder's plot?

Freely I scatter my prodigal seeds;
Sun, wind and rain will provide for their needs.
Man cannot always be digging and hoeing,
While he is asleep, I get on with my growing.

I don't expect mercy, I won't ask for pardon,
And when you're all dead, I'll take over the garden.

 

[FerlasDave]

One more thing on my bucket list:
I need to find a green house that functions with added heating, all Canadian winter. I want to live in it, last week of January and the first week of February.
Paint and draw the plants, wood carving and reading, watch the Northern Lights at night (low in the north last night but we got quite a show, red and purple even.). Watch the winter storms, count the icicles.

Neighbor 2 doors south has a double property. One side was covered with poly tunnels all last summer. Never learned what he was growing but there was a lot of it. We are limited to 4 Cannabis plants.

Have a look at boss of the swamp on YouTube. He has a very productive greenhouse that is heated by a wood burner in the winter.

 

[Robson Valley]

I would prefer to ride on the shirt tail of a local commercial grower. I would rent living space and just about bushcraft the rest.

Dinner by candle light 75F and -20 raging blizzard outside.
Lush green-ness all around. I cooked on a Coleman green box and read by the light of a Coleman mantle lantern for nearly 5 months. I think I could manage for 2 weeks.

Probably won't happen in my life time but there is a strong geothermal water source some 100km east. It's up for commercialization but the infrastructure costs are obscene. I never understood just how corrosive the sulfurous water could be.
Some people made a huge rock pool to swim in when the lake level is just right to hold the hot water.

 

[TeeDee]

Just now thinking if there are any bushcrafty resource type plants I could plant and grow in the greenhouse to bring over for next year?

I quite like doing experimental stuff and then upcycling it into some primitive form - I'm thinking along the lines of flax , cotton , soapwort etc??

Suggestions on a postcard please

 

[Toddy]

Flax is sown and grown in the same year, takes about three and a half to four months.
Soapwort is a hardy perennial and cotton.....well I tried to grow cotton, but it just was not warm enough here.
Another weaver down south said she managed it but the bush was huge and still didn't ripen properly. It can't take any frost at all and it needs nearly five months of really good sunshine apparently. how sunny is it where you live ?

Mostly our resource type plants are pretty hardy. The greenhouse is a great place to start seedlings or to grow on, in Summer, plants like tomatoes, gourds, chillis and the like.

Thing is that the greenhouse by itself actually blocks light, and in an overcast country, summer apart, that's a real issue.

You can keep things like herbs productive, so long as you nip them out often, and you can kick start Winter and early Spring crops.....fancy broccoli, and the like.

Sorry TeeDee, I kind of feel I'm raining on your parade

How about mushrooms though ? All kinds of brilliant mushroom logs available

 

[TLM]

I'm thinking along the lines of flax , cotton , soapwort etc??

Apparently hemp is the easiest fiber plant to grow, it is legal in the EU with non-THC strains. Have no idea how in the UK:

 

[slowworm]

I think it depends on where your greenhouse is sited, our main problem this year is a bit too much sunlight.

If it was me I'd start off by ensuring the greenhouse is in good shape for next year. So, repairs done, pots clean etc. Then some pots of useful overwintering veg.

Then I'd consider do you want to take any cuttings? Some can be taken in Autumn and the greenhouse keeps the worst of the weather off provided you don't forget to occasionally water them.

Then I'd look at seeds that need a spell of cold to germinate - your greenhouse might be too warm for this although ours still gets frosty as it's unheated. The last few years I've harvested some good sized hazelnuts and put those in a large pot. Come spring quite a few germinate and are potted up. Take care of critters wanting to eat them though, some form of protection on top of the pot is worthwhile.

 

[Toddy]

I agree in Summertime, but come the shorter days, and the Sun never gets 'high' then the greenhouse really does occlude light.
It's already darker earlier here, I know it's not even mid August, but we do notice the evenings shortening and dawn's a little slower too.

 

[TeeDee]

Flax is sown and grown in the same year, takes about three and a half to four months.
Soapwort is a hardy perennial and cotton.....well I tried to grow cotton, but it just was not warm enough here.
Another weaver down south said she managed it but the bush was huge and still didn't ripen properly. It can't take any frost at all and it needs nearly five months of really good sunshine apparently. how sunny is it where you live ?

Mostly our resource type plants are pretty hardy. The greenhouse is a great place to start seedlings or to grow on, in Summer, plants like tomatoes, gourds, chillis and the like.

Thing is that the greenhouse by itself actually blocks light, and in an overcast country, summer apart, that's a real issue.

You can keep things like herbs productive, so long as you nip them out often, and you can kick start Winter and early Spring crops.....fancy broccoli, and the like.

Sorry TeeDee, I kind of feel I'm raining on your parade

How about mushrooms though ? All kinds of brilliant mushroom logs available

Would mushrooms do well in a greenhouse? I'm making an assumption I would need to darken the glass ? Correct or not?

 

[bobnewboy]

Would mushrooms do well in a greenhouse? I'm making an assumption I would need to darken the glass ? Correct or not?

I’ve only ever seen them grown in (shipping) containers. ISTR that it’s because they need limited light and controlled temperature and humidity to flourish.

 

[Toddy]

Our greenhouse is humid enough, and I know people who successfully grow mushrooms in theirs.
The spawning stage needs dark, but you can just cover them up with something like cardboards. Once they start coming up they need gentle light (mind most grow understory) to kind of encourage them to think they're growing in the perfect place.
My friends use the bottom shelves of the greenhouse and the straw bales sit in the black gravel trays.

I think you have to be 'hopeful' of a crop though rather than dependent upon it.

M

 

[TeeDee]

Our greenhouse is humid enough, and I know people who successfully grow mushrooms in theirs.
The spawning stage needs dark, but you can just cover them up with something like cardboards. Once they start coming up they need gentle light (mind most grow understory) to kind of encourage them to think they're growing in the perfect place.
My friends use the bottom shelves of the greenhouse and the straw bales sit in the black gravel trays.

I think you have to be 'hopeful' of a crop though rather than dependent upon it.

M

I've been thinking about this further.

I do have a galvanised corrugated sheet shed at the bottom of the garden which has a store of firewood that I don't really use.

I could upend some logs and stick some straw bales around the edges , put a water sprinkler in there on a timer - there is a small doorway that I can either cover or leave uncovered to let some light in..