Tag Archives: Greenhouse

The New Greenhouse

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In the south-eastern corner of the Priory grounds, something’s been going on.

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Slowly, during the past few weeks, we’ve been growing a new cedarwood greenhouse.

Buying a greenhouse during the December sales secured us a 20% discount.  But buying a greenhouse during the December sales meant having to build the thing during the balmy months of January and February.

It has been a struggle for Rob the Brickie.  He started off by digging the footings, followed by …

DSC_4150 … a breeze-block base.

DSC_4151It was on this that he built the six course, brick wall.  Measurements and levels had to be repeatedly checked and very, very precise.  I told Rob how, as it wasn’t square and it was the wrong height, we had had to demolish the first wall built for the original greenhouse three years ago.  In retrospect, I shouldn’t have told him that – he did worry so.  Big time.  (He needn’t have – the greenhouse installers told me this was the finest base wall they had ever seen).

DSC_4154When the weather allowed, the wall grew.

DSC_4188On days when it was warm enough; on days when it was dry enough.

DSC_4706A cold snap delayed our plans by a fortnight and heavy snow prevented the delivery of the greenhouse panels; for several days the Priory drive was impassable to anything other than a four-wheel drive – or Shank’s Pony.DSM_8430But finally, a few days of fine weather allowed Rob to finish the wall, the cement to harden and the greenhouse itself to be delivered and installed.

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Here it sits in all its fragrant glory behind the original; rather like stationary railway carriages shunted into a siding.  Forever.  (We didn’t have the space to site them side by side).

DSM_8434Come inside and have a sniff – the smell of the cedarwood is intoxicating.  There is interior and exterior paving still to be laid, water and power to be connected and water butts to be positioned.

I thought for this coming season, I would continue to use one greenhouse open bed …

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May 2011

… for tomatoes and cucumbers.

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Pot grown sweet peppers – July 2011

And the other for aubergines and peppers; both sweet and chilli.  (I’ve already sown the seeds). You see, I have a yearning, a fancy for some ratatouille.  Yep, some rich, thick, garlicky ratatouille.  With crusty bread.  And perhaps a glass of wine.  Or two.

Come summer, pull up a chair and join me.  Just bring your own wine, would you?

December …

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has been either rain-sodden or bitterly cold down at the Priory.

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I much prefer the latter.

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The west pond has been frozen but Solo …

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… no longer ventures out onto it.  A couple of years ago (when this photo was taken) she ran across the ice (chasing a snowball), broke through and had to be ignominiously rescued.  She wasn’t happy.  So no, Solo doesn’t do ice.

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This shallow arm of the east pond has been frozen too.  I love this unkempt area of willow, water and alder.  Grasssnakes live here (though deep underground now), heron visit and moorhen hide amongst the battered reed mace – not very well; they always break cover long before I’m aware of them.

With the ground either wet or frozen I’ve been chopping firewood; cutting back lots of brown, mushy plants; turning compost; tidying outbuildings; sharpening tools; raking leaves and pruning roses and apple trees.

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There are nine old apple trees at the Priory but they have all been abused over the years with, for example, limbs removed leaving horizontal cuts which allow water to pool and the trunk to rot.  They’ve fought back with a forest of shoots and it these I mostly remove or prune back each year – as well as any crossing or damaged branches.  I remove canker too with which the poor things are riddled.

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Sometimes, I’m so very cold (usually when I’ve forgotten an extra pair of socks) that I just gaze into the house and wish I could go inside and play with the boys.

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Thankfully (with a heater and the morning sun) the greenhouse is warm.

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Perhaps a little too warm.  My echiums, uprooted from the outside glum, have responded with vigorous new growth.  I do wish they’d stop it for goodness sake – one has almost reached the roof.

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Sadly there wasn’t enough room for all of them.  This one stayed put -  RIP.

Rob the Brickie (not his real name) does a lot of work at the Priory during the winter.  I call him Rob the Brickie though brick paving is but one of his many talents.   For instance, he loves digging …

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… trenches.  Yep, really.  Ditches for drainage, ditches for power cables or, as above, a ditch for the water pipe up to the greenhouse (June 2011).  Dug, piped and refilled in under two days.  And unlike some of the other ground work at the Priory, Rob’s trenches don’t slump afterwards.

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You might remember that cows broke into the gardens a while back (see ‘Cows In The Asparagus’).  Bless them – how I chuckled at their antics.  In their unbridled lust to gain access to a place long-denied them, they knocked down a couple of stretches of post and rail fencing.

The cows are now indoors for the winter …

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… but the sheep aren’t.  So Rob is replacing the sixty yard length of old, damaged two-rail fence with a stouter, higher three-rail one.

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This is one of two stretches of twenty-year old fence that will be replaced in the next few months.

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Oh and I’m about to lose my terrifically useful holding bed.  I use it for heeling in new trees, shrubs or roses and for holding herbaceous ‘stuff’ – until I have space for them in the borders.   Like I say, terrifically useful.  I shall have to build a replacement.  And I’ll also be losing the asparagus bed which is sad but, you see, they both have to go; we’re getting another greenhouse.  It will be the same size and design as the existing one and will sit right behind it.

It’s been ordered and will go up in the next couple of months.  Rob will lay the pavers and build the base wall.  Useful chap to know, Rob.

And then I will have to think long and hard on which greenhouse to drink my tea in.  Tricky.

oooOOOooo

As I won’t be posting again this month, I’ll take this opportunity to wish you all a Very Merry …

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… and a Very Restful Christmas.

Greenhouse Maintenance

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Over the past couple of weeks, I’ve been readying the greenhouse for winter.  It is two and a half years old and was in need of a damn good clean.

So out with all the cucumber and tomato plants.  They hadn’t quite finished but I needed to crack on.  The former produced a good crop this year – just about the only thing that did!  And the toms put on a goodish show … eventually.  Especially Gardener’s Delight – living up to its name.

Out with all the paraphernalia that had accumulated above and below the bench (goodness only knows where it all comes from). Out with all the cacti and succulents.  Out with my kettle and mug.  Out with clutter.  Only then could I light a sulphur candle (in truth a tin of sulphur granules).  This is a simple and effective way of cleansing your greenhouse.*  It should pretty much kill any pests lurking within the warm, moist confines.  (I did a quick scout about before hand and carried out four softly snoring newts.  There are always a handful that like to over-winter beneath the benches).

Having lit the paper fuse, I cautiously retired.  (I hate that we have pink pavers in the greenhouse.  Why do we have pink pavers in the greenhouse?  Someone?  Anyone?  Why didn’t I have them replaced?  Pink!).

And watched, a little mesmerised, as it filled with thick, pungent, white smoke.

I left the ‘house overnight (no frost forecast) so that the smoke would kill any nasty critters; though the following morning there were still half a dozen wolf spiders inside, quite unconcerned at being fumigated.  N.B. Wolf Spiders will inherit the Earth.

Next, I spent three long hours cleaning all the glass.  Inside only – the outside didn’t really need it.  Or so I told myself.

All looking a little sparkly – if a little bare.  And it has an unusual perfume: sulphur and vinegar and cedar wood.  Not altogether unpleasant.

Time to start re-filling – I like this bit.  I’m not really used to having the Priory Garden HQ looking as tidy as this but I suspect it won’t last.

Some of my sempervivum pots brought into the dry.  They don’t mind cold but will rot if they get too wet.

Now I have to start bringing in all the tender plants from the tropical bed and elsewhere in the garden.  Some of these are BIG plants so it’s going to be a tight fit to get them all inside.  And inevitably these plants will be harbouring some pests and nasties.

Which makes me wonder why I bothered fumigating the greenhouse in the first place.

* And, I believe, organic.

September Return

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September is a favourite month;

in fact I’d rank it in my top twelve.

The light is sharp and low and the gardens look pretty good with much still in flower.  But there is a chill in the air that promises change.

It will soon be time for regular bonfires and leaf raking; time for the perusal of bulb catalogues while sipping huge mugs of tea; chopping fire-wood;  making spring planting plans;  the clearing of herbaceous borders and the annual making-of-things (e.g. more nest-boxes and more leaf-mold bins).  And, best of all, September heralds tottering piles of buttery crumpets.

It is also a busy month at the Priory.  And it is far busier this year than usual.  For reasons I won’t bore you with, we’ve only just cut the beech hedge – rather than in early August.

The main beech arch with, right, a new one being trained

The wet summer meant that it had grown much more than in previous years and so took far longer to do.  Boy, did my arms ache.

Nick, Jim and I toiled a whole day; and then Jim and I toiled another.  All the trimmings then had to be collected and burnt; wreathing the gardens in constant, medieval wood smoke.

The mixed hedging normally only requires a light trim after its main cut in July – usually a swift job to remove a few arching bramble stems.  But not this year.  Again the wet summer had allowed it a secondary, unwanted and major growth spurt.

Jim cutting the mixed hedging

I asked Jim to come in again and help me get it re-cut.  It should now look crisp throughout its dormant months.

With the hedges cut, I could turn my attention to strimming.  There are large areas of grass that now need clearing.  Unmown they have been full of wildflowers but now they must be cut short before they are flattened by heavy rain and frost.

Sheep’s Bit Scabious (Jasione montana)

This is such a patch below the greenhouse; packed with Sheep’s Bit Scabious (Jasione montana) it has been spared my strimmer – for now.

About the ponds and ditches, I have reduced to ground level meadowsweet and ugly dock, nettle, perfidious bramble and unwanted, unloved self-sown willow and alder.  Whatever I cut, I rake up and barrow out to the bonfire.

The meadow is far too large an area for me to strim.  Next week, weather allowing, Sam and his huge, his amazing grass-cutting machine will tackle it.  (Heavy rain today forced us to postpone).

As if I haven’t got enough on my plate, rabbits have broken into the gardens once again to wreak havoc; nibbling through the wire netting as if it were cotton.  Damn them and their twitchy noses too.

I really ought to be moving tender plants into the warm, safe bosom of the greenhouse now except that it is still full of cucumbers and …

… tomatoes.  Weird, strange 2012.  And I have had a warning shot across the bows.  I really must get a move on and bed the gardens down for winter.  You see last Wednesday, on the 19th we had our first frost!

As it does every year, it has caught me by surprise.  Suddenly, summer has slipped away.  And me with the meadow still uncut, lots of strimming to do, loads of tender plants to move under cover, some of which I was still hoping would flower!  But not now.  Frost?  Already.  Cripes.  Yes, I really must get cracking.

Best get the crumpets on.

Slug Feeder

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This cool, wet “summer” has been fabulous for our slug and snail chums.  And I’ve learnt that I’m really good at something.   (What a relief that is).  I’m simply brilliant at feeding slugs.

I can grow a constant supply of slug food;  my repeated sowings of radishes and salad leaves have been much appreciated …

… as have newly planted out sweet peas, runner beans, marigolds, heleniums, salvias …

… and cannas.  All have been nibbled, munched, shredded or have simply disappeared.  And, of course, …

… dahlias have proven particularly popular.

Though I skip about the gardens scattering (organic) pellets to my left and to my right, it makes little difference.   The following morning all the pellets will have disappeared and the devastation will have continued.

So no, this hasn’t been a great year for gardening; too little rain, too much rain; sloppy soil, baked-hard soil: buffeting winds and pro-longed periods of cold.  And those sluggy, snaily things.  One might even say it has been a rubbish gardening year.  So I shall.  It has been a rubbish gardening year.

Still, in the mostly slug-free greenhouse, …

… my four cucumber plants and eight tomatoes are coming along …

… and it won’t be long before we have our first cucumbers.

I’ve bought an irrigation system for these bed-grown plants and it seems to work fine; watering away over the weekends.

In the rock border, the foxgloves are showing off nicely.  Each year I dig up self-sown seedlings, pot them up and then dot them about, aiding their further colonisation of the gardens.  In addition, I grow white ones from seed.

Some dahlias did manage to survive successive slug mauling; this is Dahlia ‘Smarty.’  No two flowers …

…are the same and unlike some varieties I grow (‘Fire and Ice’ springs to mind) this is a  resilient, vigorous plant.  (Slugs often ‘go’ for weaker or poorly, less robust plants).

Also in the rock border, amongst the ferns,  I’ve discovered polemoniums.  Never seen it before; never grown it; never bought any seed.  Its seed must have lain dormant in the soil.  Waiting.  Just waiting.  Either that or there’s a  guerilla gardener about!

 

At the rock border’s far end, and increasing year on year, is a clump of yellow loosestrife (Lysimachia punctata).  To the left of it is bergenia – which I moved here from another part of the garden.  Incidentally, I always cut off all the bergenia leaves in spring; this removes all the tatty, browned ones.

This was the bergenia de-frocked in April; looks a little startling but the new, fresh leaves soon emerge.

In one of the kidney beds, my Crambe cordifoila has flowered again.  Last year the stems collapsed, so this year I’ve given it a damn good staking – and it is holding up.  Oddly, the slugs don’t seem to bother it.

At the back of the kidney beds are Foxtail Lilies (Eremurus stenophyllus).  I’m hugely pleased with these  – the first I’ve ever grown.  But they were prone to slug attack too and from ten bulbs, only two or three have flowered.  Hopefully they will do better next year.

Also in one of the kidney beds is a lovely, understated plant: Gillenia trifoliata.  This pretty, little thing is one of the very few plants I took from my old garden when I moved house.  It doesn’t seem to be widely known or grown.  It ought to be both, I think.

On the west wall of the house is a marvellous (and huge) climbing hydrangea (Hydrangea petiolaris).  Last year all the flower bud was lost to frost.  This photo, taken a bit too late, doesn’t do it justice – the display this year was a good one.

At the back of the house, a very old rose (possibly ‘New Dawn’) fills the confined space with scent …

… and in the car-park, four Rosa ‘Ferdinand Pichard’ are getting established.  Planted bare-rooted a couple of years ago, they also have a superb scent.

On the rose tunnel, and flowering for the first time, is Rosa moyesii ‘Geranium.’  No scent but a beautiful, simple flower which later form large brilliant orange, flagon-shaped hips.  (Thanks to Francie for introducing me to it).

And finally, another plant which I haven’t grown before (put in a pot to protect it from slug-dom); the exotic looking Peruvian Daffodil, the Spider Lily or Ismene (Hymenocallis x festalis).  Rather lovely, don’t you think?

So, despite the best efforts of all those blasted gastropod molluscs, there is some flower in the Priory gardens.  With, I hope, lots more to come.