Greenhouse Preparation

By Alternativeeden @markngaz
With winter fast approaching we needed to get the new greenhouse ready for its winter inhabitants. Normally we have prepared the garden for winter prior to now, but this year with builders, and our attention focussing on the house we had out it off until the last minute, 

As it was this morning

This Cycas revoluta spent the summer in the greenhouse, we actually thought it was dead earlier in the year, but
 it flushed late on in summer. Many of the new leaves were fused at the tips. I don't know the cause of this, we
will have to see if it does it next year.


With some low temperatures in the forecast it was time to get the new greenhouse insulated. Heading off to the nearest garden center for bubble wrap we discovered that Christmas was far more important to them and almost the entire retail space was taken over with Christmas related tat, and no bubble wrap at all. The next garden center was only a little better, although they didn't have enough left for us. Third time lucky and we picked up enough for the greenhouse. I guess if I had been a little better prepared this year I would have bought it online (which would have also been a lot cheaper) but unfortunately it had slipped my mind until today.

We had quite a lot of foam insulation board left over from the pond (and also some the builders had left behind) and this was used round the lower section of the greenhouse for extra insulation. It does block the light so we didn't want to go all out with this.
 
Once it was all wrapped up we built some temporary staging from concrete blocks and decking (this was the deck planks from the old desking we removed for the new conservatory.


The right hand side looks like a sales catalog for Crug farm! How many of these plants can you name!


We finished putting the plants inside after dark, but fortunately the trusty work light illuminated everything as we get the greenhouse full. There is still a bit more space for a few extra plants that will find their way in over the next few days no doubt!
Gaz :)