General Chat

I have a greenhouse for the first time and am at a bit of a loss as when and what to do,
When do i leave the roof vent open?,,,do i open the door and leave it open all day?
Can i put stuff in it now?

Hi Claire,

you are up early!

We have a greenhouse which we still have the bubble wrap in for warmth, is the roof vent an automatic one? Ours is. We open the door in the day now it's warming up but close it before dark to conserve heat, even tho we still only have plants overwintering in there.

Google greenhouse management and see what you find. There's probably lots of info available, a lot is trial and error regarding where it is, whether in full sun or shade etc

We planted courgettes in ours once, in growbags, they were like triffids, they took over lol Have had lots of success with tomatoes and planting up seedlings of all kinds.

Good luck and have fun

Lizxx

Hi Liz
Yes i was up at about 1-30,,,,too excited about the greenhouse i guess,lol
It has a roof vent that i have to open manually
Iv got some grow bags in there already to grow toms with the grandsons.Do you think its the right time to sewsome seeds?

Yes you can sow seeds and bring them along. BUT if you get a frost unless you have heating of some sort.................... electric or a parafin heater................then you might loose some or all of your seedlings. I lost tomatoes one year as late as May !!!!
I think where you live can be pretty cold, so be careful.
I have most success with tomatoes.
Cucumbers are also good but can get big like Liz's courgettes.
I use mine a lot for growing summer annual flowers.
If you use growbags for your tomatoes you will need to water often as they are quite shallow, especially on hot sunny days, possibly twice a day. I tend to use the compost from the growbags in very big pots with the bottoms cut out. It gives depth and makes watering easier as you just water into the pot, not the whole area of the green house.

If I think of anything else I'll add again.

Linda :o)

Linda

Iv ordered some special pots from LAKELAND for growing toms in growbags,,its supposed to help with the watering if you have to go away,
You're right,,the growbags are pretty shallow arent they.

Claire, on a day like it is here today, I will not be opening up my greenhouse, which is full. If it brightens and warms up by this afternoon, I will open the door a little, to let the air circulate, to stop plants from dampening off. I just grow my tomatoes in large pots, when they are large enough to be transplanted. At the moment, I cover them up with horticultural fleece at night.
Happy Gardening
Julia in Derbyshire

Hi Clair,

If there is one thing I would recommend for a greenhouse it’s to replace your manual roof vent with an automatic one. It’s worth its weight in gold. You can’t always be there to adjust it and it’s surprising just how quickly the temperature in a greenhouse can rise on an unexpectedly sunny day.

Most greenhouse suppliers can supply them as an option, or there are plenty of aftermarket ones out there. Timber or aluminium framed greenhouse ones are fairly easy to fit, it just takes about half an hour of turning the fitting instructions this way and that, together with perhaps a little muttering about the clever person that wrote them!

The best bits are getting your nice new greenhouse organised and carrying on gardening when it’s pouring with rain outside!

Best wishes,
Mayfield.

Claire, have a look at the garden centres, there is a Greenhouse Expert book by D. Hessayon which looks useful. It's one in a series of Expert books by Dr D.G. Hessayon and is around £7

Lizx



Dr D G Hessayon

In 1958 Be Your Own Gardening Expert started a major innovation in gardening books.In 2008 the Expert guides celebrated their 50th anniversary and the 50 millionth copy in print.They had become the bestselling gardening books in history.

Their creator Dr D G (Dave) Hessayon, the son of a Cypriot landowner, was born in 1928 and grew up in Manchester.He read Botany at Leeds University, where he gained his BSc degree.In 1950 he travelled to the United States, working as the editor of a small town newspaper.In 1953 he went to Ghana as a Research Fellow at the University College before returning to Manchester to obtain his PhD in soil ecology.In 1955 he accepted a position as chief scientist with Pan Britannica Industries, becoming chairman in 1972.It was here that Dr Hessayon formulated the idea for his Expert guides to gardening.

A steady stream of Experts followed the publication of Be Your Own Gardening Expert, each one maintaining the basic formula of down-to-earth writing with pictures, charts and photographs.In the British Bestsellers list for the 1980s there were two Experts in the Top 10.In 1993 Dr Hessayon received the first-ever Lifetime Achievement ‘Oscar’ at the National British Book Awards.He was also awarded the Royal Horticultural Society Gold Veitch Memorial Medal for his outstanding contribution to the advancement and improvement of the science and practice of horticulture.In 1999 Dr Hessayon was awarded a Guinness World Record Certificate for being Britain’s ‘bestselling non-fiction author of the 1990s’.

Despite his resolve to stay out of the limelight there have been further awards along the way – a Lifetime Achievement Awards from the Garden Media Guild, three Honorary Doctorates and an OBE in 2007.There are over 20 Expert titles in 22 languages, and in Britain their sales continue to dominate the gardening paperback lists.The Vegetable & Herb Expert continues to be the No.1 bestseller.Now an active octogenarian, Dr Hessayon has more gardening Experts in the pipeline and he serves as the Design and Editorial Consultant for the non-gardening Experts.Retirement has to wait.

“I would say that the Expert Books have been the biggest innovation in gardening publications since the death of William Robinson in 1938.” – Dr Brent Elliott (Librarian, Royal Horticultural Society)

n for Claire and anyone who needs greenhouse tips.

What do you say to them Mac? Do you tell them all your secrets?