An alternative rainbow

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

Take a peep inside our greenhouse

We had a really good tidying session in the greenhouse so I thought that I'd let you have a look around. First the view from the doorway down the let hand side. The green mesh is fixed over the door when it is left open to try and prevent the birds flying in. They get in easily enough and then often can't find a way back out

Just inside the greenhouse are annual flower seedlings - the ones in modules will go to my sister's garden and also one or two will be used to dot in borders in our garden. The lily is kept inside to protect it from the ravages of lily beetle. I'm not sure where the clematis came from - it may be a cutting or a self sown plant. I'll just have to wait and see what type of flower it is.

Moving on are the first batch of annual flowers in pots which will be planted out on the plot as they were last year.

Then we have some tomatoes. The sedums are to replaced those that the birds have destroyed on the living lid. They will be planted once we have some protection in place.

At floor level are several large pots containing the cyclamen that I grew from seed a couple of years ago, a banana plant - Musa Basjoo - that spent winter inside and dahlias which are now regrowing. Behind all these are the apricot, peach and nectarine trees that I posted about here.

On the small shelf behind the trees is a tray of brassicas recently sown.

On the bench at the far end that doubles as a potting bench are trays of sweet peas, tomatoes, brassicas, lettuce and aquilegia seedlings. There are more sweet peas in the cold frame which were moved in after the tips were pinched out - these will follow shortly. The aquilegias should be yellow and are destined for the red and yellow border that I am currently planting.

Moving across to the other side of the greenhouse. On the shelf are the potted on pelargonium rooted cuttings which I posted about here. At the moment these move under cover at night when the temperature is predicted to be low. Next to them are Martyn's experimental early tomatoes.

Then down on the floor is an agapanthus that I bought for the blue and white border and later found that it is best planted in a container so I am trying to decide what to plant it in. If I can find a spot for it one of the zantedeschia  will be popped into the pond. The jacadranda is amazing - we just chopped the top off last autumn and it has resprouted. The sempervivums and sedum are also for the living lid but I am beginning to wonder whether I have bought too many. I just went for one of each different variety that I could find!

There are three large pots containing newly germinated leeks and then a second batch of newly sown annual flowers.

The small lavender plants are the rooted cuttings that survived over winter - not all did so maybe I should have potted them into larger pots. (I did that straight after writing this post).

The persicaria are J S Caliente kindly sent to me by Angie. They are growing well and destined for the red and yellow bed. My second attempts at growing some pea shoots are under a propagator lid to try and prevent the mice from robbing me again. They took every single seed.

I know that the delosperma looks dead but trust me it is greening up.

On the way out just inside the doorway are the figs which have already produced fruit. Fig fruits really seem to be in such a hurry to grow - a shame the stone fruit don't take a leaf - or maybe that should be a fruit - from their book.

Then just before we leave if we turn back at the doorway we can see the grapevine has started its bid for greenhouse dominance.

For those of you who like a video - below is a video tour. If you click on YouTube you can view in a larger size.

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

Heart of stone

Many of you will know that last autumn we moved three of our pot grown stone fruit into the greenhouse.

The main reason for this decision was to try and avoid peach leaf curl from devastating the plants and removing any chance of fruit.

Last year on the 2 May the leaves if the nectarine looked like this:

This year, although it is far too early to feel confident that we have kept the problem at bay, the leaves look healthy.

Keeping the trees under cover meant that I had to take on the role of pollinator. I can't have done too badly as fruit has set.

The apricot - Flavourcot - was the first to flower. It didn't have lots of flower but quite a few fruits set. Unfortunately we are down to just two but these are swelling nicely at the moment.

The nectarine - Fantasia - was next and was loaded with flowers. Quite a lot have set fruit but will these follow the lead of the apricot and drop.

The peach - Avalon Pride-  didn't have lots of flower but again some fruit has set. The tiny fruitlets already have a furry skin.

To try to encourage the trees to hang on to at least a couple of fruits, the trees have been given a top dressing of good quality compost mixed with a slow release fertiliser.

As an added treat we may also give them some doses of tomato fertliser for good measure.

Then we have to play a tense waiting game to see whether our trees really have hearts of stone or whether the only stones are at the heart of some juicy delicious fruits.

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