My First Greenhouse

I'm on the verge of buying a greenhouse for the garden. Mainly so me and my daughter can spend some time together - She's only 5, but really keen on growing things.
And as I'm not experience in the slightest, I really have no idea on what's easy to grow in a greenhouse and what's not. I'm thinking veggies would be great for us, but where to start?
:dh:
Any help or advice/pointers, would be greatly appreciated,

Emma

 

Some random thoughts:

Buy the biggest you can afford. You will want larger, once you are "hooked", and its a lot easier to control the temperature in mid-summer in a large house, rather than a small house.

I bought mine on eBay - a 30' long and 10' wide glasshouse, less than 5 years old, for £400. Admittedly I had been looking and waiting for quite some time though ...

... the gruesome details in My Blog

"I really have no idea on what's easy to grow in a greenhouse and what's not"

OK, lets start with first principles. What do you like? No sense growing something that will produce fruit like its going out of fashion, but you hate the sight of!

The obvious, common, easy, choices are:

Tomatoes, Cucumbers, Sweet and Chilli Peppers, Melons, Aubergines.

The less obvious are a vine (table or bottle), salad crops, Early Potatoes, Sweet corn

But there again maybe you fancy a collection of Orchids ... or Fuchsias .. or somesuch?

It would help to know if you have a Veg patch already?

For a 5 year old I would buy Suttons "Fun to grow - sunflower race" - two packs of sunflower seeds and a tape measure!

 

"The obvious, common, easy, choices are:

Tomatoes, Cucumbers, Sweet and Chilli Peppers, Melons, Aubergines."

We have already started with some Tomato seeds and my little girl did indeed mither me into buying some sunflower seeds. So we've made headway with them already and to be honest I didn't think I would grasp the whole "green finger" at all, but I'm actually starting to enjoy it. I can see it becoming a new addiction.

We like all kinds of veg, and I'm open to try and give anything a go.

"It would help to know if you have a Veg patch already?"

We don't have a veg patch at the moment, we moved into our new house in February and it's taking us a while to get the gardens sorted, back to basics really. As they had been left to their own growing devices for years. So tidying them up as been quite the job. But hopefully once I get a greenhouse set up in my back garden (expenses might only stretch to a plastic one) I'm thinking of turning the soil over and creating a patch. To be fair though, the land behind our house is consists of a hill and a field. We live at the bottom of the hill and I'm told by neighbours that drainage of the land here is quite appauling and gardens can get somewhat sodden in rainy months. So I'm not sure if to just stick with the greenhouse for a while and maybe look at the land when we've had a downpour.

So much to consider.

 

"I'm thinking of turning the soil over and creating a patch"

If the reality is that you won't get time to do that for a while it would be worth getting a sheet of black plastic and covering the Veg area - it will keep the soil moist, so you'll even be able to dig it in the middle of summer (probably!) and start to control the weeds etc. Once you have prepared the soil you can put the plastic back and grow through it the first year, or two, and that will kill off any weeds that germinate from seed. Squash would be a good crop "through plastic" - in fact if you made a couple of holes, put some muck or shop-bought compost in them, and planted them through the plastic first week of June (i.e. after the last frost), that would work well - no need to prepare the plot at all this year. You could germinate some seeds now, in pots, or buy some plants from your local garden centre nearer the time. You can plant them 6' to 8' apart so I doubt you will need many!. Could also grow Courgettes in a similar way (about 3' apart)

Gourds can be grown and planted like Squash - same trailing habit. Ghastly, misshapen, oddly coloured fruits .... I'm clearly way too old to enjoy them! and in fact this is the first year that I've been able to persuade my youngest, now 10, to switch from something so totally useless to Butternut Squash which is far more practical, and can actually be eaten!

"drainage of the land here is quite appauling and gardens"

Have a look at making raised beds (Personally I wouldn't consider growing vegetables any other way, water-logged soil, or not). The soil still needs to be cultivated though, so plastic-cover, or any other form of getting it functional, is still needed first.

 

Hubby bought me one of those walk-in greenhouses so I've now got Radish, Spring Onion, Peas, Runner Beans, Cabbage, Cauliflower and allsorts growing. I've also just become the proud owner of two Pumpkin plants that I got from the Swap Seeds Yahoo! Group.
I seem to be doing well, not sure if it's just luck, climate or whether I'm just naturally "green-fingered".

But yeah I'm looking at having some raised beds, seems like the easiest and quickest way to get the ball rolling, plus I think it'll be easier to organise the ground space.

 

You'll need to be getting your skates on then, 'coz those plants are going to want to be planted out very soon - 1st June would be good for frost-tender things like Runners, the Radish can stay in a container if its about 3" or more deep (e.g. a cat litter tray with holes in the bottom [I read that they tend to shatter if you drill the holes so it's Chaucer's Canterbury Tales "Red hot poker" - or skewer I imagine - routine instead])

Peas Cabbage and Cauli need to be planted outside when they get large enough - say 6" tall - and they will need to be covered with netting - Peas to keep the pidgeons off, and Cabbage + Cauli wiht a smaller mesh to keep the cabbage white butterfly off.

 

cant decide what to go for but i've come across one of these below, if i put it in the garden the same way the rear would be protected by our hedge and the side by large Leylandii.

 

I'm staying away from these types of greenhouses after I was bought a standard 6x4 walk-in type and it's only been a matter of days and the joints are splitting. Plus the zip doesn't close all the way, leaving about a 5 inch gap open! Oh and not forgetting the plastic covering, that is supposed to be "heavy duty" is splitting. We're forecast strong wind tomorrow and I really don't think it's going to last through the night. I would probably search around for a second hand proper greenhouse. Someone on this forum recommended this site and I'm thinking of purchasing one from there.

Good luck!

 

for the amount of cash i have green houses aint that good:(but this one is £89 and it would have protection from my hedge which is about 6/7ft and the landi about 10ft or so,so i might get awaywith it.They do say its rip/rot proof :skp:

this is the area it would go in,well not till the end of the season cos its all flat now and is going to be full of spuds.Then at the end put one in there.

 

The covering looks a bit too saggy to me, if it can flap in the wind it will split pretty quick.
I`d reinforce the frame with diagonals, a good gust of wind against one end panel could fold it flat.

 

Mine is going straight back to the retailer.... Well if I can buy a proper greenhouse for £79, then there is no need for a flimsy version.

 

how big is that one then?

 

It's this one. Big enough for what I need