A bit of a panic today when I saw that temperatures might go down to 3C tonight and tomorrow night.
Whilst I had started to move some of my tender plants under cover a few weeks ago the job was far from complete. I had been putting it off partly due to the hefting of heavy pots but also because the greenhouse with a few pots tastefully arranged was looking very smart.
So with fingers quickly beginning to chill I scooted round the garden between showers collecting up the assorted pots. The pelargoniums were cut back and in some cases transferred to small pots to over winter. The succulents were gathered and in at least one case potted up into a larger pots. This left the bergonias and the tender ferns which had got ridiculously big over the summer and obviously benefited from some months in the heat.
As you can see my greenhouse is tiny just 8ft x 8ft but it works very hard. I have rearranged the staging over the summer, trying a different layout to see if the space works better. Previously the staging ran along both sides – we shall see how I get on over the winter; but I cant change it quickly due to the amount of gravel in the gravel trays. The deeper gravel trays have drainage in the bottom of them so when I water the top layer the bottom layer also gets a soak. I take this into account when I arrange the plants so for now I have placed the pelargoniums and bergonias underneath so they benefit from the residual water from the ferns and bulbs. The other staging is shallower and with no drainage holes so I use the bottom shelf for either resting bulbs or succulents which do better kept almost dry over the winter.
I will rearrange as the months progress especially as the bulbs flower and pass on but I seem to have managed to get a better arrangement this year which allows me to stand in the greenhouse and see everything which is an improvement on last year.
There’s just the rest of the garden to sort out now, oh and a large box of bulbs to sort.
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