Hello Everyone,

I’m writing this from the best seat in the world, well maybe not the world but definitely the best place in my world. I’m on the bench in the front garden surrounded by the warm setting sun, bird song, the bumbling of bees and an occasional rustle of wind through the poppies, lupin and corncockles. On each side of the bench are pots of nicotiana and linaria, and hanging baskets of violas, pansy and fuchsia. I have a cup of cinnamon and hazelnut coffee and a small bowl of cherries, what else does a girl need?

It’s hard to believe its June already, we have reached the summer solstice. It’s a year since my dad passed away, and the greenhouse and garden have kept me from being too downhearted. I have harvested my potatoes and can proudly say that T&M were 100% correct in saying you get a bigger harvest from their potato grow bags than from other larger ones. I harvested almost double the weight from putting single potato in each of the five bags than I did from a large bag with five potatoes sown in it. I used Charlottes for both types of bags. I also grew a large bag with five redskin potatoes which were either a Rooster or a Desiree just to see if there would be any difference in the bigger bags, but again although each spud was bigger I had less volume overall.

In the small greenhouse there is a steady turnover of radishes, peas, amaranths zinnias and the Aloe Vera’s waiting to be moved to bigger homes outside. Terri kindly sent me some Basil Lemonade Seeds and I cannot wait for these to grow. Its zesty lemon flavour should taste amazing with strawberry jelly and fresh strawberries set in it. It may even taste great in a glass of water or frozen in ice cubes on a hot summers day. My next trial will be to compare how well Lemonade grows to Basil Red Rubin.

Now is the time to start off foxgloves undercover for next year’s display. I am off for a week so will be sowing Foxglove Alba, as well as raiding my seed box for late summer sowing plants. As I discovered, gardening makes you think ahead, but sometimes there is so much to do, that I forget to look ahead and then look at seeds in my box in September that says sow April to June. Although the way the weather is here I can probably get away with sowing them in early July. Last year we had six weeks of constant sun from the 10th of June, this year it’s looking more like six days altogether if we are lucky.

Thinking ahead, I am looking for veggies I can grow in the greenhouses from November onwards. I am wondering if spinach, beet and possibly turnips are any good in the greenhouse. Have you any suggestions or have you growing any winter hardy veg in the greenhouse? We get some cracking winter sunshine and the last few years have been very mild.

In our “mahoosive” greenhouse, as my mum calls it, I have fruit and flowers on nearly all of the tomatoes, even through lack of sunny days they are about four feet. The only two that are a bit slow is Green Zebra and Black Opal, the Sungold, Gardeners Delight and White Opal are rampant. I have also put half dozen radishes into a spare corner of the greenhouse as the soil was bare where an aubergine inexplicably gave up the ghost. They are sprouting well, fingers crossed for tasty treats. There is a family competition on as my Uncle Derek has produced radishes the size of golf balls that taste amazingly sweet. I do not plan to compete with that. Do you have friendly or fierce competitions with family or friends, or grow anything unusual in your greenhouse? I would love to know.

As the months progress, I am learning so much more about the differences between my greenhouses. Firstly I understand my smaller greenhouse as having it for a number of years, I understand its capabilities. One thing that is clear though, it gets a lot less sun than I originally thought. I know it’s a great place to germinate seeds from January to early November. I know I can grow tomatoes aubergines peppers or chillies in its border and get a tasty crop with just watering three to four times a week. Secondly, the big greenhouse and I are only just getting acquainted. I realise that I chose to write a blog about my journey with this one from start to finish, but I hadn’t a clue what I was letting myself in for! So I apologies to you in advance for accidentally killing any of my plants or getting things wrong or dodgy photos, but I am only halfway through my journey and the road is a bit bumpy.

Whilst the greenhouses are almost side by side, the door to the big one is on the longest side of the small one so the aspects are completely different. It is ten foot, stretches from North to South so the sides get the sun from East to West the whole day. Also due to us being at the top of a hill our neighbours gardens both next door and opposite roll away from us, so the bigger greenhouse is about a foot or so on higher ground than the other one meaning the sun takes longer to go behind our bungalow giving it a distinct light advantage. The borders are a lot wider so I could have planted a bit denser which would have reduced the need for almost daily watering as I have too much bare soil. This will be rectified by the basil but it’s useless for lettuce as it’s far too hot in there. I was watching Monty Don’s Small Garden Big Dreams the other night when I realised I had a hot house instead of a greenhouse. Maybe next year I could try watermelons they like the heat don’t they?

It takes me a lot longer to complete my tasks in here not just because of the size of it, but because I spend ages thinking about light & heat, pollinators and just looking at my plants. I consider what I would like to grow, do I have the time to grow it now, or is it something for winter or even next year. I’ve even been known to take my I-Pad and a chair into the greenhouse and listen to the T&M radio pod casts whilst simultaneously writing my blog on the pretence of just checking the greenhouse. At the end of the evening I say goodnight to my plants and hope no one else hears me. It’s funny how I can totally switch off in there, and sometimes do my best thinking too. I do not regret in any way buying a second greenhouse. The only thing I am worried about is you reading a blog from someone who appears to not have a clue, but with six months to go before the end of the year, and with help from T&M’s customer service, online videos and guides and Facebook posts and their customers comments, I hope that I can learn loads more about my new greenhouse, and share it with you.

For now, Happy Gardening until next month.

Love Amanda x

Amanda Davies

My name is Amanda and I live in Pembrokeshire with my fiancé and our garden is approximately 116 meters square. I want to share with you my love for gardening and the reasons behind it, from the good to the bad and ugly. I want to do this for my own personal pleasure. If you would like to take the journey with me then please read my blogs and share with me your gardening stories.