The greenhouse reached 29°C over the weekend and the automatic thermostatic roof vent opened too, I am such a geek.

Peas, mangetout, radishes, onions and rocket are in the ground. Lettuces, beetroot, broccoli, peppers, kale and cabbages are potted up in the greenhouse so fingers crossed they will all germinate.

Next week the new potatoes are going in and we should have more cabbage seeds, marrow and tomatoes to pot up in the greenhouse.

Hopefully we’re measuring up for the decking and fencing this week thanks for Vicky’s Dad (again!) – who knows, we could be putting it up next weekend eh?

I forgot to mention – there were 3 broken panes when we opened the packs for our greenhouse but they had given us 3 spares that matched. Either they knew or they were psychic …

Related posts:

1. Garden update
2. Our new greenhouse
3. What’s growing in the garden?

We opted for an entry level “Hall’s Popular 8×6″ from The Greenhouse People. They seemed to really make themselves available in pre-sales – even to the point of having an MSN contact on their website who was able to speak with me about any queries I had.

After placing the order they took a deposit and within a couple of days a pack had arrived in the post confirming the order and gave us lots of tips on tools and other things we would need come the big day. The advertised lead time was 5-7 weeks or something like that so we were a bit gutted because that would have taken us well into March and we could have ordered earlier.

However, about 2 weeks later we had a letter saying that they wanted to deliver the following week and gave us various ways of confirming and even offered that they could phone us say an hour before delivery if we wanted to be in as they used their own drivers.

On Monday 18th I worked from home and the greenhouse arrived as promised, nicely flat-packed. On Saturday we set about putting the thing up.

Assembling the steel base was a doddle. The aluminium frame was a bit more of a faff as some of the diagrams would have benefited from accompanying photographs however we got through it without any issues.

The real pain in the arse was that before you could put in any glass you had to put on a rubber seal to the vertical sides of the glass frame. This sounds easy but it wasn’t – it took two of us well over an hour and would have taken 3 times that if Vicky’s dad hadn’t suggested that we use washing up liquid to lubricate the frame.

We called it a day after that as it had taken us 7 hours to get to the point of putting the glass in. On Sunday we set to putting the panes in. The clip system was a bit worrying for me – it doesn’t feel terribly secure to me and the pre-arrival instructions gave tips about stopping panes falling out in the wind as though that was a common fault. Hmmm… time will tell eh?!

The roof vent was a tight fit but we think that was because the frame wasn’t 100% level so we decided to put it on the opposite side where it was all a bit straighter. Then Vicky’s dad did wonders with his drill to fix it into the ground and Bob’s your uncle – we have a greenhouse.

We now have pots which I’ve drilled herb seeds into – dill, parsley, coriander, mint, basil etc. Next weekend I will plant up lettuces and a few other bits and hopefully we will be all set for Spring. Later this year we want to grow tomatoes, chillis, peppers and more in the greenhouse plus we will start pretty much everything off in pots before planting out as last year things couldn’t get established before being eaten by leaf munching creatures.

Related posts:

1. Sowing for the new season
2. How to dismantle a greenhouse
3. Garden update

Whilst gardening today I was tidying up and lifted a rock up. Underneath I found a couple of clumps of little white eggs and some sort of lava curled up in a lump of mud – aw, sweet!

I felt mean disturbing them so the rock’s gone back down and I will leave them until spring. I’m not sure what they are – I wonder if they’re woodlice as there were a few inactive ones under there.

In the bottom left of the photo that white thing in the mud is the lava; the other white bits are eggs.

No related posts.

1. Slug-eaten swedes
2. Swiss rainbow chard
3. Late and not too optimistic marrows
4. The summer’s lettuces run to seed
5. Really tall swiss chard
6. Cabbages, albeit caterpillar eaten
7. Brussel sprouts
8. Worryingly autumnal looking privet
9. Wild brambles at the end of the garden

Stuff we have had but maybe didn’t mention:

1. New potatoes
2. Broad beans
3. Peas
4. Radishes
5. Lots of lettuce and rocket
6. Biiig marrow
7. A solitary head of broccoli

So whilst some things are a bit ‘odd’ (e.g. the tall cabbages or the too-late marrows) I would say it has been a good year.

I’ve been a bit child-like with some of it – e.g. the caterpillars eating all my cabbages fascinated rather than appalled me. Once the novelty wears off I will no doubt be less tolerant.

Outdoor space is also definitely good for the mind. I find myself going out there to do a two minute job and then getting completely side tracked with nothing in particular just because it’s nice to be wandering around outside. There aren’t many times that I feel as though I have time to savour things but out there I do.

Related posts:

1. Garden update
2. Sowing for the new season
3. The beginning of the garden

It is 10′ by 6′, made from hard wood with bolt fixings for a little extra.

It feels like quite a landmark – and looking at these photographs almost exactly 12 months after we moved in I think that we should be quite pleased with how far we have come.

I was speaking to the guy from Swann Timber about sheds and he said that prices haven’t gone up in about 15 years – sounds like a good time to buy a shed me thinks. He wasn’t too surprised or concerned that searching for them the Internet yields no results – they advertise in the Hull Colour Pages but unlike yell.com it looks like they don’t understand how search engines work – look how many results for ‘swann’ there are on their site in Google.

Anyway, they don’t care as most of their trade is by word of mouth. If you want their number it is: 01482 229992.

Related posts:

1. Garden update
2. The beginning of the garden
3. What’s growing in the garden?

We’ve had a good crop of radishes and lettuces. Have sown more but left it too late to ensure a constant supply – we’ll be better prepared for next year when we have a greenhouse.

We’re aware of the issues surrounding the environmental impact of concrete… we’ll just have to ‘do our bit’ elsewhere.

Vicky’s broad beans are happy – there are a fair few pods on there. I was a bit over-eager and took a pod off a bit too early, so we’ll have to wait a few more weeks before we get to eat them.

The peas are doing great – there have been a few bees buzzing around which was nice to see – so fingers crossed for a good harvest.

The potatoes are being odd. They are new potatoes (first earlies) but they haven’t flowered yet. A relative’s have flowered and gone but ours are still lurking. We’re hoping we just have a different variety. If there’s as much going on under the soil as there is on top then we’re going to have enough potatoes to supply a shop.

Related posts:

1. What’s growing in the garden?
2. Sowing for the new season
3. Garden Shed

Related posts:

1. Our new greenhouse
2. Sowing for the new season
3. Garden update

Incidentally, I say she’s crazy because she always seemed to make guinea pig noises when she got excited. I can’t wait to see whether this page gets searched for…

Related posts:

1. Teabag
2. Ubuntu Hardy Heron

When I was walking up the garden I noticed a hole, an thought the earth had settled from all the raking. So, I went to fill the hole in – and it moved!

A frog had buried himself a few inches down in the loose earth, presumably to get cool out of the sun! He wasn’t impressed when I coaxed him out for this photograph, you can tell by his frown, but it was for his own good – he’d only have been raked to death otherwise.

It kind of explains a lot – over the course of digging the garden I have seen dozens of frogs, one sadly impaled on my fork. But they just seemed to appear – you’d turn over a clod of earth and lo’ there would be a frog. I said then that they must have been dug in, but it seemed implausible due to our soil being wet heavy clay, but perhaps I was right?

Related posts:

1. Almost dug over
2. Preparing the lawn bed
3. What’s growing in the garden?

Vicky has grown some broad beans from seed – they’re doing nicely, despite my best attempts at killing them – when I came to plant them out they were dry and root bound but they’ll be ok. Spuds are in plus I’ve directly sown cabbages, sprouts, kale, broccoli, rocket, lettuce, radish, beetroot, peas and others I’ve forgotten about. I think I’ve planted my rows too close but this year we’re just hoping for the best – whatever we harvest is a bonus.

The local garden centre had bare root green privet at 85p per plant – we had 32 feet to fill so I dug 32 plants in today too. They were more scraggly than I had expected, I thought they’d be dwarf, green bushy things but they are in fact spindly things that look like they are dead. But, by the end of this summer they should be well on their way. Typically planting out has coincided with a dry spell so I will be out every night with my watering can after work.

Related posts:

1. Almost dug over
2. What’s growing in the garden?
3. The beginning of the garden