Inside the greenhouse

Although as I described in an earlier post our garden greenhouse doesn't look very pretty at the moment it still is earning its keep.

So what is the greenhouse home to at the moment?

Firstly there is a shelf full of cyclamen

These are a mixture of seed raised cyclamen coum which will be planted out in the garden this year. These are all deep pink and so when we visited Harlow Carr we bought a white plant to add to them. Maybe they'll even hybridise and produce pale pink offspring.

The other cyclamen are the ones I raised from seed gathered from a plant that I had in the house. They are all healthy plants but only one or two have produced flowers and as expected these are all the same colour - deep pink. As the seeds were taken from the same seed pod it seems that cyclamen seeds are true to colour.

A large potted parsley plant sits on the floor nearby.

This was brought in to protect the leaves from the battering effects of the weather so that we would have a good supply over winter for the kitchen.

Next to this are two figs also getting a bit of protection.

Both figs have had a near death experience but the larger one gave us our first real fig harvest last year. The smaller one, squeezed between the large plant and the onion sets, has a fair bit of growing to do to catch up.

As you will have already spotted, next to the figs are the onion and shallot sets that are planted in modules.

The first lot to be planted are already shooting.

We also have some onions and shallots stored from last year that we are still using.

The greenhouse isn't the ideal storage place for onions but we don't really have anywhere better. You can also see the net bag with the excess onion sets that will be close planted to produce next year pickling onions. By the look of things I need to pickle some more this year before the small stored onions start to shoot.

Also set out to shoot or more precisely chit are the seed potatoes.

Sheets of fleece are on hand to pop over the tubers if a frost is predicted. 

I know in a previous post I said that we had fallen out of love with dahlias but on a recent visit to a local garden centre we relented and bought four tubers which have been placed in compost trays to start them off.

We've chosen four single varieties - from the pictures one looks very like a cosmos flower. I like the simplicity of the flowers and the bees will love them too. If they shoot early enough we may even get some cuttings. Buying one or two new tubers means we don't have the hassle of saving tubers over winter and they should produce better than seed raised plants.

Also hiding away from the winter weather are one or two less hardy perennials. A couple are self sown verbena bonariensis which were retrieved from the cracks in paving to grow on for replanting in more appropriate locations.

The osteospernum in the large tubs have produced flowers throughout winter. The lewisias were really brought in to avoid them becoming too wet and rotting. They can stand the cold but not excessive wetness. It's a good job they spent this winter inside isn't it? Even then one plant has died.

Finally we have the grapevine - Himrod.

This is about as old as the greenhouse  and each year has never failed to provide us with a supply of small sweet seedless green grapes. Soon it will burst into action and need keeping in check throughout the growing season. It has been known to escape out of the open greenhouse window and head for freedom.

Soon lots of seed trays will be making a bid for space and the greenhouse will be bulging at the seams.

Copyright: Original post from Our Plot at Green Lane Allotments http://glallotments.blogspot.co.uk/ author S Garrett