Waste of a greenhouse

[andy]

Come on...admit it. Who, after all the bedding is planted out, just puts tomatoes in the GH.

Now don't get me wrong, home grown toms are the dogs danglies...as are cucumbers, courgettes etc etc.
But are we wasting the space we have. There are plenty of seeds that can be sown for pot plants. Coleus, Browalia, Exacum, Celosia and gloxinia to name a few that can be grown as colourful pot plants to bring into the house for a week at a time for colour and then put back to recover and another take its place.

We used to grow loads of bedding plants in small 5" (13cm ) pots. Marigolds, ageratum, begonias, salvias, dwarf antirrhinum etc can be bought into the house again for a few days for colour.

There's obviously plenty of cuttings to be taken during the summer months too with almost all shrub varieties rooting very quickly from semi-ripe cuttings from early july until early october.

Winter flowering bedding such as pansies, polys and even wallflowers should be sowed from early august onwards....don't let stuff like polyanthus get too warm though and autumn or winter pot plants such as solanum and capsicum are just right for winter colour....cyclamen might be worth a try from seed too.

Just make sure the greenhouse is shaded, there is adequate ventilation, humidity is kept up by damping down and misting and the plants are kept watered and well fed.

Oh how i wish i had the space for even a small greenhouse !

Andy

[Deleted]

I have 2 very small greenhouses - I don't just grow tomatoes, I also grow bell peppers and chilli peppers.

Have a look at this thread Andy - haven't you got room for little one?

gardenworld.proboards103.com/index.cgi?board=greenhouse&action=display&thread=1159771187

[andy]

I have a fairly large (5m x 4m) conservatory which i use to grow a few bits in. I have some houseplants....succulents in particular, but i also grew this years sweet peas and daturas in there last spring.

But soon, i will be putting verticle blinds in there so there won't be any space on the window sills. I'm also going to have to bring my tender stuff in....plumbego, daturas, citrus, musa etc so room will be very tight.

[toonia]

I suppose it is a waste but my greenhouse only has toms in during the summer. But then summer is so short and the rest of the time it's full!
It does get very hot and I haven't been able to find any shading to fit - it's a red cedar octagonal one, made in the UK but supplied by a French agent and he doesn't stock the blinds or the guttering for my model!
I found some of the shading paint stuff for the first time this year but never put it on. Just as well as it wouldn't have been needed in August and the heavy thunderstorms we had would have washed it all off well before the autumn.

[Deleted]

In my g/hses atm I still have:

Cayenne and Numex Twilight chillis both doing great guns
Peppers still growing slowly but surely
Fuschia cuttings
A very aniseedy tasting salad leaf
A teensy Totem and Gartenperle (taken as late cuttings from parent plants) AND they're flowering
Lavender cuttings
Pots of spring onions and carrots

Now I have no idea if anything will come to anything, but I'm keeping going until either they do .... or don't !!!

[sweetleaf]

I have peppers, OH`s collection of cacti (he says they are his but they have been entirely my responsibility ever since he began collecting 5 yrs ago)
Mickthecactus knows how I feel about that!
Busy lizzys, Amaryllis Belladonna Christmas and Easter cactus(mine)Begonias, various cuttings Penstemon, Fuschia, Pelargonium, Carnation etc.This was all in there when my Tomatoes cucumbers, Aubergines were there too! It looks quite spacious now they are gone....I should have taken photos when I was raising the seedlings for the allotments. You wouldnt believe how much you can jam into an 8x6!
Oh and I raised 80 lavender plants till they were ready to plant out..wasted space? I should think not! Im sure Ive missed a few... Ill look tomorrow when its light.