greenhouse

Six on Saturday 5th January 2019

greengirlgardener8 Comments

I think that’s the first time I’ve typed 2019. Feels weird!

I’m currently sat in the hairdressers waiting for my hair to ‘cook’….

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….. so I thought I’d take the opportunity to do my Six on Saturday. Note to self: don’t ever grow your fringe out!

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Callicarpa Bodinieri. This doesn’t look like much at the moment, but it will. It will have small lilac flowers in the summer but its USP is its purple berries that appear in the Autumn. You can see the last vestiges of them still clinging on for dear life. When I first saw these in Notcutts before Christmas they were covered in dozens of bright purple berries and they clean took my breath away as I rounded the corner and saw them! I love purple so what could be better? It’s going to grow pretty big so I need to decide on where to plant I carefully.

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This was a sale table find. There have been slim pickings on the old sale table since we’ve left the summer behind us, but I spied this beauty and had to have it. At half price (plus my 10% Notcutts discount) it would’ve been rude not too! It’s a Euonymous and it will grow to about seventy five centimetres. It will have white leaf tips in the summer which has earned it the nickname white candle. I had the perfect spot in mind for it as soon as I saw it!

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This beautiful sempervivum pot was also on the sale table. I’ve been eyeing these up all summer but didn’t want to pay full price for it so imagine my glee when I spotted it on the sale table. I have a place in mind for this as well, but I need to do some more preparation first. All will be revealed at a later date.

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Meet Cyril the one eyed snail. Due to his disability he was also half price. I think my husband has rubbed off on me. He’s a sucker for all things disabled or disadvantaged. I saw Cyril slithering around on the sale table on Wednesday and didn’t buy him, but when he was still there on Thursday I decided to take him to a good home in case he got resigned to the rubbish heap otherwise!

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I’ve already written a post about my lovely new greenhouse (check it out here) but I couldn’t do my Six on Saturday without mentioning it. It was a Christmas present and I built it on New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day. It took longer than anticipated, and I ran out of light on the first day! I’m so pleased with it, and I have big plans for it – watch this space!

Staging! The staging was also a Christmas pressie but it didn’t arrive until this week. I put them together this morning – dead easy, just slotted together. Don’t they look the part in situ? Can’t wait to get sowing and put them to good use.

Did you spy Cyril and the Euonymous beautifying the outside! I put Cyril with his good eye facing out so he can see! This is going to be the prettiest greenhouse ever by the time I’ve finished!

There you have my Six for this week. Do pop over to the Propagator’s page to check out his six and check out the comments for more people taking part.

Happy Saturday all!

 

The cutest greenhouse in the world

greengirlgardener3 Comments

Happy New Year! I wonder what 2019 will bring for us all.

Well, for me it’s going to bring homegrown fruit and veg because the greenhouse is done! 154 screws, seven hours and more than one or two rude words later my new greenhouse is erected! It’s really little, six foot by four foot, and it’s super cute. After I’ve published this post I’m going to peruse Pinterest to find ideas to make it really pretty (as well as functional).

Hubby had to work yesterday so I asked him to take the box out of the garage for me so I could start building it while he was out earning a crust. When it arrived I couldn’t believe how small the box was.

I wouldn’t have been at all surprised if there had only been half a greenhouse in there, but amazingly it was all there.

It’s actually a green greenhouse!

I got the first few bits together quite quickly and easily and it was starting to take shape quite nicely.

I had to abandon ship (or greenhouse) when the light faded because I couldn’t see what I was doing, and I was also cold right through to my bones because I’d been out there for five hours. My poor fingers were so cold that I was struggling to actually hold the screws and nuts. I’d managed to get most of the greenhouse in place though, all that was left was the opening window in the roof and the door.

We headed back out this afternoon after we’d had an epic snooze after the new year festivities last night, and it’s a good job there were two of us for the last bit because the door in particular was quite tricky to keep together until all the components were assembled, but with a little bit of teamwork (and a few more rude words) we got the job done. I nearly fell out with the door because we just could not work out how to attach it properly, but we worked it out with a bit of lateral thinking.

Here it is in all its green and cute glory!

I love it! Isn’t it cute?

Hubby has bought me some staging to go inside for Christmas, but because I was so busy at work and sorting out Christmas preparations, I didn’t actually get chance to choose it so he could order it until a couple of days before Christmas so it hasn’t arrived yet. It’s green as well! I’m really excited to put everything into use, but I need to be patient – we’ve got the cold months of January and February to get through first before I can start sowing seeds. In the meantime I can start beautifying it!

A lot of my Christmas pressies were garden and/or greenhouse related so I can put them to good use now.

I can’t wait to grow purple carrots! Do you think they’ll taste any different? I actually googled carrots last night because I had a feeling that they weren’t always orange. I was right, they used to be naturally white, yellow or purple but in the seventeenth century a strain was produced with higher beta carotene content which made them orange.

I’m excited to grow coriander too. It says on the packet that it’s a spice, but it’s a herb isn’t it? Either way, I love it. A curry isn’t the same without coriander and it’s lovely in a salad as well. I looked for coriander plants a few times over the summer and didn’t find any, so now I can grow my own.

Did you spot my environmentally friendly bamboo pots and saucers? I’m really going to try hard to cut down on the plastic that we use in our house and garden this year. It’s heartbreaking to see all the images of sea life swimming around with plastic in the ocean, crabs using yoghurt pots as shells, birds with their beaks bound to their breasts by plastic drinks rings.

Well, I’m off to surf Pinterest now for greenhouse ideas. Got to make the most of my last day of freedom before going back to work tomorrow. I’ve had such a lovely break (even if it did include solving a work crisis on Boxing Day!) and I’m sad to go back and lose all my free time again, but I’m excited to see what the working year ahead will bring, although I’m a tad nervous about what effect Brexit will have on my company. 2018 was very good for me professionally, and I’m hoping to build on that in 2019.