Grow Your Own Magazine

well, Friday was my younger daughter's 7th birthday, opened pressies v. early, then moved some turf about. friends appeared at 3pm, wine opened. more friends at 6pm - more and more wine opened. ended up playing Buzz till midnight with the kids!!! Saturday was NOT a gardening day, though would have been preferable to childcare with a hangover. Vile weather. today we have done family lunch for 10 - still not gardening, still vile weather. maybe tomorrow will be better?

Only an arm Alice as my 12 x 8 cost's an arm & a leg My 8x6 I used to heat with a parafin lamp.

It cost me about £3-£4 per week in the coldest period when they were running 24hrs a day. When it was a bit warmer during the day I could know the lamps off so it dropped to £2-£3 per week.

The trouble is that you have to have a bit of ventilation with parafin lamps so you loose a bit of heat as well. I don't think it was a s well insulated as it is now either.

If I were to do it now I would think about using a bottle gas heater, a lot of these are thermostatically controlled & you don't have to worry about the wicks needing attention. Again you would need to have a bit of ventilation.

Electric is great in as much as you have a dry heat do there's no worries about water vapour thats produce with the above two, you have a fan that circulates the air, another bonus, but On the down side it is fairly expensive these days so I would reckon on £5 - £6 per week for a guess for mine but that is heated a bit warmer than is usually required if you are only growin veg & flowers (dahlia's & Chrysanths) but I house my cacti in here as well & some of them prefer it a bit warmer. I also use my propagatot bench as a localised heat source for tender plants as well.

Hope this helps

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ntg

Never be afraid to try something new.
Remember that a lone amateur built the Ark.
A large group of professionals built the Titanic

http://grief-encounters.blogspot.com/

Green house hit 30 degrees so took the time to sort everything out. All windows and vents open. Cleared floor and removed all electric’s so I can put the hose in to damp down. Everything in the garden a riot of colour ad forget me nots and tulips in flower. Growth spurts all round. Weeding is going to be next on the list of things to do.
As I read others people’s posts in this section it really makes me think how lucky I am with the weather here in Cardiff.
Tomorrow I will be going to the RHS Spring Flower show here in the city. I'm really looking forward to it. Will take camera and report back.
Jax

Thank you for the information Nick. I have an electric fan heater in the greenhouse and that kind of cost wouldn't bother me. Its on now anyway as the plants have to go somewhere. Used to have a paraffin heater but hated it. The smell and condensation were awful and as you say, lost a lot of heat with ventillation. Will burn the electric and hope for better weather.

The biggest boon is the fact you can go away tfor the day & not have to rush back to light lamps Alice !
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Anyway, To day I went up the lottie !! It started to rain the second I switched of the ignition but I thought sod it anyway!

Sure enoughthe sun came out. Did a bit of Hoeing and general weeding (well know commander in the army) thought the winter Onions would appreciate a bit of a boost so gave them a dash of 30:10;10 feriliser that I keep for just such an occasion.

I then got my 1st Earlies in at last. came home for lunch. time for a mug of tea now Methinks.

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ntg

Never be afraid to try something new.
Remember that a lone amateur built the Ark.
A large group of professionals built the Titanic

http://grief-encounters.blogspot.com/

More general pottering today and planted up some annual bedding plants.

Found some more daff bulbs and red hot poker tubers that were forgotten but sprouting so have planted them. May not get anythign this year, but if not, at least hopefully next.

Yest agin no housework today, oops. Supposed to do it yesterday, but spent all bar 3 hours asleep with a nasty bug. At least the westher was warm for me today.

Garden is really starting to take shape now

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Shortie

"There are only two lasting bequests we can hope to give our children; one of these is roots, the other wings" - Hodding Carter

Found some salad burnet and an unusual orange papaver (looks more like a dahlia), so they have been planted. Also put together a tubular steel obelisk to go over my jasmine was forced indoors by a nieghbour who decided to light a bonfire on what is very windy day round here - really some people just don't think.

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Best wishes
Andrewo
Harbinger of Rhubarb tales

Boo hoo, at work again, last shift tommorow then 5 off.

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Kindest regards, David.

http://pigletsplots.blogspot.com/
updated - Sunday 19th at 2100hrs

Woke this morning to thunder, lightning and hail. Not a great start, but when the sun came out between the showers, the polytunnel was hitting 25 degrees.

Oh sod it I thought, I am going to start sowing, so in the polytunnel: garlic, broad beans, spring onions, carrots, lettuce, radish, salad nasturtiums, potted on verbena plugs and laid out all the grow bags (the polytunnel now looks like a veg garden all nice and tidy).
I also planted some garlic and dahilias outside (well I was getting a bit carried away by then) and moved some strawberries outside, but got them covered with fleece. Tidied the shed after OH kept having a go at me about the mess it was in and also hammered in six fence posts and now can't move

I used to wear 'Bay City Roller' tartan!

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Into every life a little rain must fall.

Potted up a free blueberry that I got through the post today & some trailing petunia plugs. Took my courgette 'Orelia' & cucumber 'Marketmore' out of the propagator, they've come up lovely(thanks Acorn)

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Into every life a little rain must fall.

SueA
Am ashamed to admit it but so did I
Today I sowed 60 acres of barley (you should see how many 3" pots that takes!! )- not long in, relaxing with hot coffee, choccie biscuit and the 'Vine.

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Rat

British by birth
Scottish by the Grace of God

Blog updated Wednesday November 13th

Looked at the temp gauge in the plytunnel - -2 last night, but 30 degrees today during the (very brief) moment the sun came out. May regret sowing the seeds yesterday, but the lettuces are Arctic King.
Even the car temp gauge showed 10 degrees outside today. Felt like -2 and not really windy.
Hmmmph - when is this weather going to get better? Sometimes we get our best sailing (we have a boat) in April, but NOT this year!

Moved about 200 daffodils (in the green) to allow the foundations to go in for my new greenhouse tomorrow. YEEESSSS !!!!!

Potted up 5 free Impatiens I received in the post & tried to juggle all the plants between the kitchen & the plastic greenhouse (no room anywhere now!)

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Into every life a little rain must fall.

yesterday -noticed that a bunny had dug a warren next to our new fence and had dug out along the length of the fence undeground to get through into the main plot and had given up!!! yippeee.....foiled again eh?? (10 feet further along it could have just wandered into the plot as the gates haven't been hung yet!!!) Nice to have an IQ higher than a bunny

Space in the greenhouse at last with 195 tomato and chilli plants shipped out to a friend for her polytunnels.

I pricked out cape gooseberry, aubergine and some more flowers today, the flowers being for the cutting garden part of the plots. On the plots I dug a bed for the second time ready for planting peas tommorow and got my summer cabbages ready for planting out as well, netting at the ready to keep the flying rats off.

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Kindest regards, David.

http://pigletsplots.blogspot.com/
updated - Sunday 19th at 2100hrs

Who told you I could fly PW ?
Potted on my mini cauliflower and Minicole cabbages. Leeks, lettuce, other cabbages, calabrese, chives, tagetes, peas all germinated, ready for potting on next week.

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Rat

British by birth
Scottish by the Grace of God

Blog updated Wednesday November 13th

everyone KNOWS you can fly RAT!
today me and the kids planted seeds - poppies, nigella and cosmos. I did some weeding. them back to school tomorrow, and me to work (ie a meeting, rather than 'normal' work from my desk at home, which means I can pop out and garden every now & then!)

All I managed was to water in the greenhouse & pot up 5 cuttings I hate work.

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ntg

Never be afraid to try something new.
Remember that a lone amateur built the Ark.
A large group of professionals built the Titanic

http://grief-encounters.blogspot.com/

Nick
That's what I did - except for the potting on 5 cuttings - I hate work too!

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Rat

British by birth
Scottish by the Grace of God

Blog updated Wednesday November 13th

Blimey Rat that's a big allotment! Do you have one of those nice John Deere tractors to work on? I'd love to have a big garden & one of the ride on John Deere mowers to do the lawn! I think it's the green & yellow colour that attracts me although I do quite like JCBs as well!

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Into every life a little rain must fall.

I've potted on the rest of the tomato plants so now I really can't move in the greenhouse. It should get a little better later when I can get the fushias, courgettes and beans out. I've potted on the tomatillos into bigger pots and put them in the greenhouse. I'm not really sure what I'm doing with those as its the first time I've grown them so I'm just sort of bumbling along. Planted some 'sugar baby' watermelon seeds in pots on the windowsill - another experiment.