My garden dreams are somewhat lofty and possibly unrealistic (at least for the near future), as we have a limited budget to work with. As much as I’d love a potting shed and a greenhouse (not to mention the hot tub), we haven’t even planned what we’re doing with most areas of the garden yet. Even if we did have the money, who knows whether they would fit?!
I certainly wasn’t planning to have a greenhouse any time soon - in fact I don’t think I’d even considered it at all - when I was given a mini one for Christmas. It is one of those with a frame, shelves and a clear plastic cover, rather than a full size glass one, and it is perfect! It took a bit more effort than anticipated to get it ready, but it is now happily housing seedlings.
My lovely husband built the greenhouse for me one day whilst I was out at work, and stood it in the garden, against the garage wall. There’s just enough space between the end of the wall and the garage window for it, and it gets sunshine in the morning. He weighed it down with a heavy stone, and so in went my little sweet peas which I had been growing inside. I had started hardening them off so figured it was the perfect time to put them in the greenhouse. I went off to work the next day, however when I popped home at lunch, disaster had struck - my greenhouse had blown over and the poor sweet peas were scattered on the patio. My husband had done his best to rescue the little plants, but there was no way they were going back in the greenhouse!
A few of the sweet peas did unfortunately succumb to shock, however a good number have thankfully survived. They went back in the kitchen for a while though to recover. In the meantime, when my in-laws came down to help us start building the raised vegetable bed, they also helped us screw the greenhouse to the garage wall. It is now nice and sturdy and (hopefully) completely wind resistant.
The sweet peas were returned to the greenhouse, and some of them have now been planted out into a large patio planter. Some newly sown zinnias have also joined the sweet peas in the greenhouse, although I think it might be a bit early to sow them outside. It was a bit of an experiment - some in the greenhouse, some in the kitchen. Those in the kitchen are doing well, whereas those in the greenhouse are yet to poke through. I don’t know whether they’re just taking longer, or whether it really is too cold and they won’t survive. They can be planted outdoors though, and after seeing the difference between some veg (I think it was beans or peas) that Monty Don had planted outside compared to those indoors (on Gardeners' World), I’m hopeful they’re just being slow. Time will tell.
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