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Building a Productive Greenhouse – a guest post by Caitlin Smythe
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Many gardeners use greenhouses to cultivate exotic, heat-loving or tender plants, to get seedlings ready for re-planting or to extend the seasons and make use of the waning autumn sun. Even gardeners with small, unheated greenhouses can make the most of the sun’s warmth to produce vegetables that are nutritious and tasty. Start by having a look at some of the best public greenhouses available in your area.
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One of the most impressive greenhouses open to the public is in
Kew Gardens in London. The Princess of Wales Conservatory is divided into ten computer-controlled micro-climactic zones and populated with Dry Tropics and Wet Tropics plants. Every inch of this conservatory is covered in plant life – from ferns clinging to rock faces to climbers twisting up columns – so that visitors can spend hours taking in the subtle and fragile details of beautiful collections of orchids, cacti and bromeliads. It’s certainly worth the visit for budding gardeners but remember to look for voucher codes before paying full entrance fees.
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Naturally, not every home garden is equipped with the kind of resources available at Kew; however, it’s possible to have a productive greenhouse for most of the year. Electrically heated greenhouses provide optimum temperatures for growing vegetables but they do tend to weigh heavily on homeowners’ utilities bills. A warm greenhouse is an excellent place to grow fragile vegetables such as aubergines, cucumbers, peppers and tomatoes, and while these are fun to prune and harvest, they’re great to serve at the dinner table as well.
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For home gardeners just starting out, it’s important to insulate greenhouses, whatever the mode of heating you choose. Begin by sealing cracks, replacing panes and ensuring that doors fit snugly. It’s really important to protect plants from frost and experts recommend draping fleecing over plants or covering the whole greenhouse with roll-down blinds during cold snaps.
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Name of author: Caitlin Smythe
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Thompson & Morgan have over 14 delicious potato varieties to choose from, starting at just £2.99 for 20 tubers. If you have never grown your own potatoes before, it’s really easy to do – check out the potatoes on offer by clicking this link.
START DATE: Now
END DATE for the GYO potatoes offer is Midnight Wednesday 29th February 2012 (subject to availability)
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FREE P&P WHEN YOU SPEND OVER £10 on seeds from Thompson & Morgan
For those of you who have yet to order your seeds for early sowing, your spring planting plug plants or vegetables for your garden or allotment, then this weekend is your perfect opportunity to do so.
With the long awaited winter pay day fast approaching for many of us, get your order in early with a great FREE P&P special offer for when you spend over £10, which will save you up to £6.90.
START DATE: Thursday 26th January 2012 END DATE: Midnight Tuesday 31st January 2012
USE ORDER CODE: AF12231 for free p&p when you spend over £10 on seeds
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Aldis are selling packets of vegetables seeds for 39p – how cheap is that! A good excuse for trying out something new!
Click this link for details: Aldi seed packs
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Rainfall in the TopVeg garden in 2011 was 413 ml
- January 12.5 ml
- February 60 ml
- March 9.5 ml
- April 1 ml
- May 25 ml
- June 43 ml
- July 51.5 ml
- August 71.75 ml
- Sept 15.5 ml
- Oct 62 ml
- Nov 15 ml
- Dec 46 ml
The annual rainfall in the TopVeg Garden:
The annual rainfall in 2011 was the lowest we have had in the TopVeg garden in 6 years, even lower than 2010. What was yours?
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Once potatoes are peeled, dark coloured spots (often black) may be seen.
These black spots result from tissue damage which causes a discolouration reaction. The black spots are only visible after peeling as they are below the surface.
Factors involved in the development of black spots:
- potato variety – some varieties are more susceptible than others eg Anya
- dry matter – potatoes with high dry matter are more susceptible to black spots eg Setanta. Low dry matter potatoes eg. ‘Kestrel’, ‘Nadine’ and ‘Picasso’ bruise less easily
- soil nutrients – low potassium increases blackspot susceptibility
- size and shape of potato
- condition of soil at harvest – dry stony soil will cause more bruising , which leads to black spots
- rough handling at picking time causes more damage, bruising and black spots
How black spots develop:
Once the potato is damaged, biochemical reactions occur in the cells, which include a colour reaction. It takes 10 – 20 hours for the black spots to start to appear, and several days for them to fully develop.
But this colour reaction can be slowed by:
a. cooling the potato down – as the enzymes work quicker at high temperatures & are inactivated at low temperatures
b. high humidity – this minimises water loss from the potatoes and reduces black spots
To reduce the occurrence of black spots:
- treat potatoes very gently when handling them
- if the potato is stored correctly the bruise will not develop
Bruises in potatoes are like those in apples, they are only in the damaged cells. The bruise does not spread. But stored potatoes with very high dry matter can develop black spots during storage, especially if they are allowed to dry out.
Black spots on potatoes are unsightly so it is worth trying to prevent them.
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Catmint (Nepeta) attracts butterflies but deters bloodsucking flies.
Scientists at the USDA research station in Lincoln, Nebraska have discovered that catmint oil deters 99% of horse flies. They made pellets containing nepetalactone, the active compound, and scattered them on the field or in feed lots. They found that ” catnip essential oil (at a dosage of 20 mg) resulted in average repellency rates of 96% against stable flies, Stomoxys calcitrans (L.) and 79% against houseflies, Musca domestica (L.), respectively.”
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Thompson & Morgan are offering a fabulous Potato KIT FREE* for every visitor – worth £15.00!
What you get in the kit:
5 x tubers of Potato ‘Vales Emerald’ - A Maris Peer/ Charlotte cross with an RHS Award of Garden Merit that is proving to be very popular. Potato ‘Vales Emerald’ produces generous yields of oval, cream-skinned and pale fleshed tubers. Perfect for your first potatoes of the year, and a simply delicious as a salad potato. Height and spread: 60cm (24″).
vales emerald
1 x potato planter – Holds approximately 40 litres of multipurpose compost (sufficient to plant 3 or 4 tubers).
5 x packets of vegetable seed – Receive 5 packets of quality vegetable seeds.
*Just pay £4.95 postage
Enter Offer Code: AF11109
Enter code in the box labelled “Enter catalogue or newspaper code:”
T&Cs: Offer cannot be used in conjunction with any other offer code and is only valid with orders placed online at www.thompson-morgan.com.
START DATE: NOW
END DATE: Midnight Sunday 27th November 2011
Click this link for more details about the free Potato KIT .
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Courgette ‘Black Forest’ is a climbing Zucchini; an F1 Hybrid, latin name Cucurbita pepo.
This climbing Courgette is an ideal variety for growing in containers on the patio. As it grows upwards it saves space and is more ‘controlable’.
The long stems are tied onto a trellis or netting to help them grow upwards.
courgette black forest
Courgette Black Forest:
- produces heavy yields
- dark green, smooth, cylindrical 15cm (6”) courgettes
- height: 120cm (48″)
- spread: 60cm (24″)
- sow in April, May or June
- flowers June – August
- likes full sun
Click this link to buy some seed of the climbing Zucchini Courgette Black Forest.
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