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| Go greener |
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| With a growing number of gardeners eschewing chemicals in favour of natural alternatives, we can suggest some effective products from our organic gardening selection |
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| Relax and refresh |
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| Good food freshly prepared daily, aromatic coffee, chilled wine and a grassy play area for the children. What more could you need? |
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| Food heaven |
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| Our Farm Shop is heaven for food lovers! Delicious handmade food, top quality groceries, fresh fruit and vegetables and stylish cookware and gifts. |
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| The Discovery Walk |
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| As thousands of daffodils herald the spring, stroll or stride around our Walk while the youngsters enjoy the Nature Trail |
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Make your greenhouse a clean house!
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| Wednesday, 1st April 2009 |
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IN THE GARDEN WITH PETA MARSHALL
I would always recommend that a gardener has greenhouse. The extra heat and warmth a good greenhouse can provide will revolutionise your gardening. You can propagate plants. You can overwinter tender plants.
You can create wonderful displays of exotic plants. You can allow certain plants, like cyclamen, to recuperate after flowering indoors. And, yes, if all else fails, you can use it to store the mower (if you can get it through the door!).
But a greenhouse does need a bit of care and attention if it is to perform its best for you.
In the summer the glass needs to be shaded (because of the strong summer sun – yeah, right, like we had this year, she says sarcastically!).
But in the winter the glass needs to be cleaned, because the weak winter sun needs to be able to get through to our plants unhindered by shade, dirt, grime, moss, etc.
So now is a good time to clean the outside of the glass – but do it carefully, for I wouldn’t want you to get a step ladder and gingerly crawl along the glazing bars in order to reach the farthest-most panes. You do occasionally hear of someone doing this – and falling through. Not to be recommended!
Instead, use a long-handled broom or car-washing brush, and clean the glass with outstretched arms. This really will make a big difference to the plants you’ll be overwintering this year.
Cleaning throughout the greenhouse is a good idea too, and start to do this early in the day. The reason I’m suggesting you do this now, in late September, is that we havent yet progressed to frosty days, but leave it much longer and they’ll be with us. You don’t want particularly cold weather when you clean out the greenhouse, because to do it properly you need to empty it of all plants – and some of them may be on the tender side and won’t appreciate more than a couple of hours outside.
When the greenhouse is empty, sweep it out – both on top and underneath the staging, as well as the pathway. Get rid of all lurking insect nests, webs, fallen leaves and flowers, as well as moss and fallen bits of compost.
Remove surplus boxes, pots and seed trays. Keep these to one side, for they can be given a good cleaning later – and this is just as important to the general hygiene of the greenhouse. Clean old containers like these with hot, soapy water to remove lurking problems.
When the greenhouse has been swept, and the outside glass has been cleaned, now is the time to get the real work done. Using a garden sterilant, such as Jeyes Fluid, scrub all of the hard surfaces – glass, glazing bars, benches, staging, flooring – to an inch of their lives. This will kill off any unseen insect pests, and most of the unseen fungal spores, that could cause you and your plants problems during the winter. Ventilate the greenhouse well whilst you’re doing this, and also afterwards so that it can dry out properly – which is why I recommended you start early in the day. After a couple of hours, when it has dried off, put back the plants that you had previously taken out.
Arrange them in such a way that, in a month or two’s time, you can easily move the plants in order to put up insulation. This usually takes the form of bubble-wrap plastic that can be pinned to the insides of the glass to provide a useful insulation layer again frosty conditions. It will raise the temperature inside a greenhouse (even without any other form of heating) by several degrees, and usually enough to keep it frost-free.
But insulation comes later. For now, the plants can simply be returned to the greenhouse, to enjoy a month or two of our Indian summer, we hope.
The final thing I should remind you of at this point…is to do with your greenhouse heater. Heating a greenhouse in winter enables you to overwinter specific plants – such as orchids and other ‘exotics’ – that require a minimum temperature that is much higher than our normal winter. Heating also means that you can germinate specific seeds for tender or early crops.
Greenhouse heaters are available from the garden centre, and it will pay you now to see what’s what. Electric and paraffin heaters are the most commonly seen, but there are also bottle gas versions. Read up about which type will suit you best, and get it in good time.
And if you already have a heater, get it out of storage, give it a wipe over and test it to make sure it is in good working condition. If it isn’t, get it checked or serviced by a professional, or dispose of it and get a brand spanking new version.
As you can see, although owning a greenhouse is hugely rewarding, don’t be fooled into thinking that it is maintenance-free. But don’t be misguided either, for sweeping, scrubbing and sterilising will reap their own rewards – even though you don’t necessarily know what they are!
Finally, the cleaning regime described should also apply to any other under-cover growing aids you may have, such as garden frames, cloches, polytunnels or even the small plastic-clad lean-to affairs that are growing in popularity.
Cleanliness is next to Godliness, they say (but not in the dictionary I’ve got at home – I know, I checked!). Happy gardening!
This week in your garden
Pick apples and pears, when the fruits can be twisted cleanly from the spur.
Cut back any plants that are looking straggly: such as lavender that has already finished blooming.
Why not grow some mushrooms? Kits are cheap, readily available and easy to use.
Peta Marshall is the plant centre manager at Priory Farm in Nutfield. Website: www.prioryfarm.co.uk
NEXT WEEK: The smaller spring bulbs
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