Greenhouses and other glass protection
- Install an electricity supply in your greenhouse to give you light and power for watering systems and propagating units.
- Remove automatic window openers in the winter, as heavy frosts can damage the liquid reservoirs which operate them.
- Locate greenhouses where they will get plenty of sun in winter and spring, and where you can get to them without getting muddy feet.
- Grow a pot of basil in your greenhouse to repel whitefly. They don't like the smell.
- Keep your greenhouse warm in the winter and save on heating bills by lining it with bubble plastic. The bubbles should be against the glass, to form a solid layer of air.
- Make quick cloches with two sheets of glass and four clothes pegs. Put two pegs on each piece of glass, lean the sheets of glass together, and put a rubber band on each pair of pegs to hold them together.
- Fix up a clear polythene curtain to separate plants which need different growing conditions such as dry and light for tomatoes or shady and moist for cucumbers.
- Water your greenhouse in the morning. Evening watering leaves moist conditions overnight which encourage red spider mite.
- Grow vegetable crops in growbags or tubs rather than in the border soil, to avoid a build-up of diseases and pests.
- Make your own staging with trestle legs and planks or expanded metal.
- If you have children in your garden, choose a cheap plastic greenhouse until they are grown-up, or choose rigid plastic glazing rather than glass.
- For cheap adjustable greenhouse shades, use roll-up bamboo blinds.
- If using biological pest control methods in your greenhouse. Check with the suppliers whether you can use pesticides without killing the predators you've purchased.
- Treat wooden structural portions of your greenhouse with linseed oil every live years.
- Install a water supply in your greenhouse. Even if it is no more elaborate than a tap.
- Keep a tank in your greenhouse to bring water up to air temperature before using it on your plants. Mains water can be cold enough to shock tender plants in hot weather.
- If you heat your greenhouse by electricity, keep a small paraffin heater as a backup in case of power cuts.
- Ask yourself if you really need to heat the whole greenhouse, or whether a propagator would be sufficient to keep your favourite plants going through the winter.
- Make a cheap cold frame the Chinese way, by digging a pit, lining the sides with sheets of polystyrene, then laying a few bamboo canes across the top to support plastic sheeting for a lid. A layer of gravel in the bottom of the pit will absorb heat during the day and give it off slowly at night.
- Put cloches out on the growing area at least two weeks before adding plants or seed, to let the soil warm up. Cover the ends to keep out draughts.
- Cold-frames and cloches attract ants, who like to make nests in warm places, so sprinkle ant killer round the edges to keep them out before they damage your plants.
- Use plastic water-bottles as individual mini-greenhouses for tender plants. Cut off the bottom and push the bottle firmly into the soil over the plant. Pop a few slug pellets inside and put the lid on until the weather warms up.
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