Walk-in greenhouse..

Hi all, I have a small walk-in plastic greenhouse and I am wondering what I can put in it now and over the winter? I have a few succulents in it at the moment but I think it will be to cold to leave them in there. Anyone have any ideas please? thanks.

 

I will be watching this with interest as I have one of these greenhouses.

I am hoping to over winter some Kniphofia, Perennial Poppies and Gaillardia, grown from seed sown in June.

 

Plastic greenhouse will not retain any heat, as such, so temperatures will fall to the same as outside. Only protection they will provide is from rain and wind - which is good as the rain would give the plants wet feet, and lots of "not very hardy plants" are happy with the cold provided they have dry feet, be careful how you water them in winter. Wind is drying, and can have serious wind-chill, so plants will appreciate not being in that.

Other benefit is that the day temperature will climb when the sun comes out. There are plants that will tolerate cold provided that the day temperature bounces back. However, in the UK we get cold nights followed by days which are never get above freezing, so those plants will still not be happy - even in a plastic greenhouse.

So for anything "tender" (i.e. that needs frost-free, or warmer) they cannot stay in the plastic greenhouse for the winter. They will be happy brought in (e.g. stuffed in the garage) as they won't need much like (some won't need any - if there are no leaves then need no light ) but the ones that need light can be carried out and put in the tunnel during nice days and frost-free nights, and then lugged back into the garage when the weather turns cold. Depends how much "faff" you are up for. You could install growing lights in an insulated area of your garage instead, enough light to keep the plants on tick-over, and forget about lugging them in and out during the winter!! (Even if you are happy lugging them in/out the weather may still catch you out, I've monitored Forecast and Actual in the past, and the Forecast has been 5C warmer than my actual on a high proportion of winter nights)

You could put a heater in your plastic greenhouse, but that would be serious nuts, IMHO!!, as it offers zero insulation capability. Glass is not fantastic, but its a lot better than plastic walk-ins in that regard.

 

Thanks for the info! Don't have a garage, sadly! It doesn't look like the plastic walk-in greenhouse is good for much during the winter really! It will be empty. I suppose it will come into its own next year to grown seeds and seedlings etc! I would love a proper greenhouse but no room at the moment.. So I am giving this a go to see how and what to do with it, I have had it in a box for 3 years!!

 

Salad? Perpetual spinach? Winter greens?
Any perennial seeds that need stratification would do ok in there too. I know this because I used to have some of these plastic walk-in ones and used them to start all sorts of seeds in. No need for it to be empty really.

 

Thanks! that's cheered me up I do have lots of seeds!! a lot of poppies if I remember too! I have had my succulents that were indoors in there, that got me in a whole heap of trouble with sunburn!! But the seed and salad idea sounds good.

 

If you have borders in the tunnel, rather than solid floor, I would grow winter crops. We enjoy Chard - as Lea said. We don't get much in the way of a crop during the winter, but in the spring before the Tomatoes etc. are planted out we get loads from it.

Lamsb Lettuce is another that should do well, but it grows incredibly slowly to start with, so you would have to sow that 1st week of August.

We have also grown Dwarf French Beans (against around 1st August) for a late Autumn crop when the outdoor ones tail off. And bags of Spuds for Christmas (again, 1st August ... sorry about that!!! we sow the Chard on ... 1st August too ... but you might get some plants in Garden Centre, that would gain you 4 - 6 weeks growing time, and small plants won't matter, it is in the Spring that they will mostly bulk up)