Storm Ciara Has Damaged My Greenhouse.
As soon as I heard that there was a storm on the way to the UK I prepared my garden for the worst, I made sure that everything that needed to be put away was away.
But there was something that I did't prepare for, the wind was to destroy some of my greenhouse glass.
Something had blown against a panel and smashed it and I could do nothing to stop it, that was a panel down and what could I do.
Something that I had in my greenhouse caught my eye, bubble wrap. I had got it free with the greenhouse when I went to collect it and I was going to use it to wrap around my plant bases to keep them warmer from frost.
I decided to use the bubble wrap to fill the hole, this kind of worked as the panel didn't swing around as much which would reduce the damaged to what was left of the glass.
I pushed it in the metal greenhouse frame to hold it in place. this blocked the hole but didn't stop the rain from dripping through.
I had another idea. lets use the dripping water to water my plants that I had in the greenhouse.
As the water ran in it was making small drips, so I place the plants that needed a much needed water under the drips, this was great as I was then on a mission to take my seedlings and pop them in 6 cell trays.
I thought to myself that I needed to take advantage of the situation as the rain and wind would stop me from digging and turning over the soil that I had planned on doing this weekend.
I decided to take my freshly growing petunias and pick them out one by one and plant them in their own cell, this was all I could really do while the rain and the wind hit the greenhouse.
Last year I had taken cuttings of my lavender plant and they took root, I had pretty much left them in the greenhouse all winter and neglected to look after them and water them, there was a surprise when I took them off my top shelf, they had lived, and so had my butterfly bush cuttings.
It turned out that while in the greenhouse they had grown a moss that had covered the top leer of compost and that had kept the soil moist, nature had found away to keep them alive without me been there which was pretty cool to see.
Another plant that had made it though was a cutting that I don't even remember keeping and that was from the privet bush, I did take some cuttings and I thought that I had used them all to put around the garden, but their it was standing there in all its glory saying look at me I made it through winter.
I have had to come in now as the rain has turned to hail and it has turned cold out, I hope that there is no more damage as this will have a massive impact on what I can grow early this year.
maybe I will have to buy some more glass pains to make up for the damage that has been caused so far.
gutted but at least I made good from a bad situation.
happy steeming folks
Sorry to hear about the damage.
Luckily so far we have escaped any hit on our greenhouse... but I hear there is another storm coming in.
Little gutted, I have found today another pain has come out, this time it has crushed my daffis,
I hear storm Dennis is coming this time, well if its out like the kid from the comics it will be a right menace. :D
Not looking forward to meeting Dennis.
If I do get any broken glass I am thinking of replacing with polycarbonate sheets - much cheaper and easier to handle.
There is a guy who I know who has been giving me glass panels for free, but there all gone now so I think I will be looking into a cheap more cost effective way of paining the greenhouse.
I've thought of polycarbonate sheets and some of the pains have them already in, glass is never a good idea, but I guess someone once thought it was.:D
I'm defo going for polycarbonate going forward - much safer too.
Those Petunias are so tiny! I did sow them once too, but I wouldn't even dare to transplant them so small :)
Hope they all grow fast and bloom!
@tipu curate
Upvoted 👌 (Mana: 15/20 - need recharge?)
I am experimenting with these ones, I have another batch just in case.
When I sowed the seeds I did it over two trays, the seeds I had collected from last years batch so I had so many, I could have saved some for next year.
I decided to try two different ways of doing things, this way where I have took them very young and tiny and transplanted them in to cells of 6 and put them in the greenhouse.
And my second batch are still in the tray on my kitchen window, these are growing massive and have 4 leaves on the stem and are a good size. these I am going to plant later into some containers.
The reason why I am doing this is to learn for myself, i have watched videos and videos of how to plant them, but no one seems to give the information for them in the UK. I know the back of the packet does but I don't have that as mine where pre-bought.
So what ever makes it to good size and health will be the way I will be doing it next year, or even a second batch this year depending on how these go.
we will see, thanks for your comment :D
I agree! Best way to learn is to try what works for you and in your environment. I noticed I have to sow things a lot earlier than the packages say, cause it is much warmer here.
Fingers crossed! :)
I have also found recently that the cold helps in the germination of the seeds, so when I pop them out side in the cold and then back inside on the window sill they seem to germinate a lot quicker than if I just popped them on the window sill straight away.
Oh that is interesting. I know some seeds to need that cold winter to germinate (probably like in nature when they fall to the ground and stay there over winter) and t is advised to keep the in the fridge for a while before sowing..
I just never know which ones :)
I'm the same as you, haven't got a clue, but it is fun learning. if my uncle was still with us he would have pointed me in the right direction, he was always out doing something or planting something.
I read a lot of books which help sometimes but normally I just do what I want and hope for the best :D