Tag: greenhouse

From this, to this?

NZ Gardener

A photo in a magazine shows sweet peas growing on a greenhouse frame. This gave me inspiration. The greenhouse I put together in September 2020 had lost most of its plastic sheeting which I’d replaced with shade cloth. The lettuces I tried to grow in it this year were ravaged by white fly.

After seeing the photo, I ripped out the last of the plastic (now washed and ready for soft plastic recycling) and removed the shade cloth. I’ve planted dwarf sweet peas in the relined, replenished hanging basket, tall sweet peas in the black bucket and alyssum – to ward off white fly – in the other planter. A bit of old trellis softens the harshness of the iron fence a little. I doubt if I’ll achieve the lushness of the magazine photo with this dry, hot weather, but here’s hoping for some flowers.

A talent for fixing things

The wind-ravaged greenhouse has been tidied up and secured with shade cloth, pegs and ties. However, the ridgepole was discovered to be rusted right through and crumbling.

My sister, who just has to look at a problem to come up with a solution, fixed it. She had a piece of rebar which was being used as a garden stake. She cut it to length, wire-brushed it, rust-proofed and painted it. Today she put it in place, with wedges of cork to make up the for narrower width.

Old rusty ridgepole
New ridgepole wedged in place with cork

The talent for fixing things is longstanding with my sister and her family. All the children are practical too. For example, an earlier post ‘All hands on deck’ (12/12/22) shows my nephew’s work – helped by other family members – to fix the underpinnings of the deck.

In 1993, my sister and brother-in-law (just before they were married) made the woodshed out of timber from the old porch. You can see from my last post that it is still in use thirty years later.

In an old album (pre-digital) are photos of the work underway, the careful measuring, while the photo above shows the partly constructed woodshed.

The last time I was at their place, my brother-in-law and two nephews were up on the roof solving a problem with the plumbing to the water butts. There’s always a project on the go!

So far so good

The next day, having ascertained that the greenhouse could be viable, I bought plants which I normally wouldn’t purchase for at least another month. Here is the greenhouse, complete with cover, and with two tomato plants in the ground. I have to wait a little longer for the “lunch-box” pepper plants I prefer to be available.

In pots on either side I’ve planted a “tumbling tom” tomato with which I have had success before, and basil. There is also a pot in which I sowed salad-mix seeds. Two containers of seedlings – sweet peas and lobelia – are safe on another shelf ready for planting outside. The terracotta-coloured pot has a chain attached and I’m considering planting something edible in this pot and hanging it from the ridge pole to make use of the upper space.

We had a frost the morning after I planted, so I was pleased to see that the plants seemed unaffected by the cold outside.

To take this photo, I had to wait for the condensation to clear. It was warm inside the greenhouse. When the sun is on it, I unzip the flap and put the piece of trellis (leaning on the left) lengthwise across the doorway to keep the hens out. If it is warm enough and the moisture on the plastic has evaporated, I roll up the door and secure it with the ties.

“Northwesterlies, gusty at times” are forecast. The greenhouse, although nestled into the fence, is not secured – so fingers crossed it stands its ground.

So far, so good…