The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Growing => Vegetables => Topic started by: Blondie on March 29, 2016, 08:13:35 am
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Bought our house last summer in a pretty run down state but it had the huge garden we wanted. Slowly we have turned it into a home and started to convert the garden from badly laid gravel, slabs and concrete into somewhere nice and productive. (Not a small holding but the first step in the ladder!)
Yesterday we purchased a 6x4 greenhouse and now considering what to grow in it apart from tomatoes, cucumber,cucamelons and courgette. (We already have smaller cold frames and the plastic greenhouses that we would grow in and some outside)
Any suggestions of something more exotic or special we could grow in the greenhouse?
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Personally I wouldnt waste space in a greenhouse for courgettes because they are a big plant and i find they dont suffer from being outside like tomatoes sometimes do.
I always grow peppers and chillies in my greenhouse along with the tomatoes and cucumbers.
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You could try melons. We grow them in the polytunnel. You need to keep them under control or else you end up with lots of green and no fruit. Try Ambrosia. Also look at early/late varieties of lettuce etc
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Personally I wouldnt waste space in a greenhouse for courgettes because they are a big plant and i find they dont suffer from being outside like tomatoes sometimes do.
I always grow peppers and chillies in my greenhouse along with the tomatoes and cucumbers.
Thanks for the swift reply! Courgettes will stay outside then :) we have a number of chilli saplings that will stay under cover but don't think we will bother with peppers as the OH doesn't eat them!
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You could try melons. We grow them in the polytunnel. You need to keep them under control or else you end up with lots of green and no fruit. Try Ambrosia. Also look at early/late varieties of lettuce etc
Had thought about giving melon ago - do you get many melons per plant or only one?
We have quite a few salad stuffs in pots so will have later varieties for after the other crops start to end. (Already lots growing in the cold frame.)
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Try some grapes, perhaps?
I'm very envious, apparently the previous owner of our house gave up after the fourth one ended up smashed into pieces in an adjacent field!
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It's quite a small greenhouse, so be careful not to stuff it too full and to ventilate carefully. Get a max/min thermometer so you can check on what's happening when you're not there.
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If you keep them running up a single stem then nip the sideshoots off beyond two flowers you should get two fruits per sideshoot. Don't be afraid to nip all unwanted shoots off and make sure you have aggood frame to support the whole thing. Water regularly. You will know when they are ripe- they smell fantastic
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My conservatory is a suntrap, so i use that as a greenhouse ;D I grow tomatoes and all the salad veg in there, to save space in the garden. For something exotic you could try and grow some unusual vegetables if you like.....
http://www.thompson-morgan.com/vegetables/vegetable-seeds/all-other-vegetable-seeds/aubergine-patio-mixed/4885TM (http://www.thompson-morgan.com/vegetables/vegetable-seeds/all-other-vegetable-seeds/aubergine-patio-mixed/4885TM)
Look at this but read carefully!
http://www.bbc.co.uk/hamptoncourt/features/veg.shtml (http://www.bbc.co.uk/hamptoncourt/features/veg.shtml)
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Depends what you eat a lot of. I grow toms and cucs, always try peppers, had a go at aubergines last year and got some teeny fruit that ripened but not big enough to eat. But what I eat most of is baby leaf salads, so I'm using half the greenhouse for consecutive sowings of mixed leaves and spinach, toms underneath and cucs/peppers the other side.
Def agree courgettes go out. I have several huge muckheaps I can use for those, they love very rich manure, even what is too recent for other plants they seem to thrive - along with squashes which I've mixed success with, but always have a go since there's so much space for them!
Let us know how you get on.
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Don't dis the courgettes. I grow them in the greenhouse but only up until they get too big and the toms start to really grow.. then throw them away 'cos by then the outdoor courgettes are starting to produce.
But 6 x 4 feet is a small glasshouse. At one time i had a 6 x 8 and one grape filled that so again not that practical unless you have a spare glasshouse.
It also depends how you organise it.. 3 tiers high one side is possible with toms on the other side. the tiered side you could have lettuce, early radish and spring onions bottom, peppers etc middle and seedling trays on top.
it also depends what and how much you plan for outdoors. I've got 150 sweetcorn in 3" modules in my greenhouse at the moment so they can get planted out in the field when safe for an early crop. There's broad beans, toms, peppers etc also in 3" pots, brassicas in smaller modules and bedding plants really crowded in their trays about ready for making up baskets and tubs. All i have in the borders are some tiny mixed salad starting up, a second follow-on sowing and spring onions and radish germinated a few days ago. That'll all come out to make way for the toms, peppers. aubergines etc as they get bigger and the weather warms up.
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Thanks for all the advice. The garden is probably tiny compared to everyone on here. We have a lot growing outside currently including beans, peas, cabbage, broccoli, salad stuffs and carrots. The brassicas and beans are doing extremely well.
We know a 6x4 is tiny but for £120 brand new it was all we could afford- ideally would have liked a 6x6 or 6x8. Tried getting a larger one on gumtree but they were all either silly money or went before we could get them. Probably being a teacher - you can't sit and watch the Internet or text/email all day :(
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It's still far too cold here for things like beans outdoors..so you either have a microclimate or are way south = less need for a glasshouse apart fom starting stuff off even earlier.
It also takes pressure off needing the greenhouse for toms etc.. so you could give more consideration to , say, melons or (if you can keep it frost free or use part of the hosue in winter) then go nust and try to grow a pineapple.. easy enough but takes way longer than you expect UK and they are big plants.. should fill a space
Another thing you might consider.. I did it with my first small greenhouse) was to move it up onto a low dwarf wall for better height...kept the grapes out of the way. But these days plenty of outdoor grape varieties about for the UK
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This is something unusual i will be growing.....
http://www.thompson-morgan.com/vegetables/vegetable-seeds/pepper-sweet-and-chilli-seeds/sweet-pepper-mini-bell-mixed/275TM (http://www.thompson-morgan.com/vegetables/vegetable-seeds/pepper-sweet-and-chilli-seeds/sweet-pepper-mini-bell-mixed/275TM)
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It's still far too cold here for things like beans outdoors..so you either have a microclimate or are way south = less need for a glasshouse apart fom starting stuff off even earlier.
It also takes pressure off needing the greenhouse for toms etc.. so you could give more consideration to , say, melons or (if you can keep it frost free or use part of the hosue in winter) then go nust and try to grow a pineapple.. easy enough but takes way longer than you expect UK and they are big plants.. should fill a space
Another thing you might consider.. I did it with my first small greenhouse) was to move it up onto a low dwarf wall for better height...kept the grapes out of the way. But these days plenty of outdoor grape varieties about for the UK
We are North East England but have had broad beans growing all winter outside and they are now flowering, alongside cabbages and broccoli. All totally neglected over the winter but have done well. Tomorrow we put the green house up ......
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misunderstood...thought you had put spring seedlings out...ignore..
My broad beans went out to harden off a couple of days ago. I missed the autumn sowing window.