I've wanted a greenhouse for ages but our garden is not very big and so I gave up on the idea. This spring a friend of mine got one of these mini-greenhouses to start her tomato plants and was very pleased with it.
I decided to get one as the chickens have taken over my garden. Last winter was very mild and I was able to harvest a few leaves of lambs lettuce all through the winter. I didn't buy any imported lettuce at all last winter. Lettuce seems to me to be a particularly bad crop either to import or to grow in heated greenhouses since it must take so much more energy to produce and transport it than can be obtained from eating it. The leaves from the garden at least meant that we could have some salad in the winter. The chickens have now scratched their way through any little seedlings and it has become obvious that I will not be able to have both lettuce and free range chickens.
So I am going to try to grow some salad leaves under cover, zipped up away from hungry hens. I am probably a bit late for this year as day length as well as temperature will effect germination and growth but I think its worth a try. I am looking forward to planting some lettuce and chard tomorrow.
Here are a couple of pictures of the chickens who having scratched over most of the garden are now investigating the pots on the patio.
They do look quite sweet though.
5 comments:
My garden is too small for a greenhouse, though I used to have a cold frame (until it fell apart!). Your mini-greenhouse will be great for getting seedlings started in the spring.
I love your chickens. Do they make a lot of noise?
Hi Denise,
The chickens don't make too much noise though there is quite a lot of clucking at egg laying time! If we are in the garden they moan a bit as they want to be let out of their run but its fairly quiet and they only do it if they can see us so most of the time they are fine. Our houses are quite close together and none of the neighbours have mentioned them!
Your chooks are such cuties - ours do the same thing, though have you noticed that the black rock does more "wild" things than the goldline? The Ginger Twins are farm more human-oriented than Gooseberry who wants to soley eat slugs... Each to their own I suppose!
We have been using cloches here, as I'm not sure a liftable greenhouse would withstand the rigours of a windy garden - one cloche is rigid plastic about 4 ft long and the other is a concertina'd plastic affair. Both very useful in bringing crops on and keeping them going til the last!
Just happened upon your blog. Looks like we are working toward a lot of the same things, so I will put your blog into my daily repertoire!
I have a growing rack that is pretty much the same as yours:
http://web.mac.com/elementsintime/creatinglandscape/Elements_In_Time_-_Creating_Edible_Landscape/Entries/2007/6/27_Growing_Rack.html
(sorry - long link)
I love it. Just be careful when it gets hot - you do have to let the heat out during midday sometimes. They heat up much faster than a greenhouse would!
Ooops. I cut off my long link. Well, you can find the post in my "Archive". Sorry!
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