Mike's Evolving Garden

I wanted to dig up an Astilbe, and I've got two garden forks - one with all four prongs, and one with three prongs (one of them snapped off many years ago)
I looked for the four-pronged one because I thought it would be better than the three-pronged, and found it after a while.
And when I tried to dig the Astilbe up, which wasn't a difficult job since the soil is like dust, the fork handle snapped !

So I had to use the three-pronged one after all, and it would have saved time if I'd just used that in the first place

 

Stainless steel??
I had one of those but I kept breaking them, mostly the tines not the handle.

Anyway I took it back to where I bought it and they replaced it free of charge about 5 yrs after I bought it.

 

It's the first time I've bought from them @Michael Hewett and the plant having to go from one end of Britain to the other, perhaps was too much for it.

 

I used to visit Victoriana nursery before covid, they stopped opening to the public during Covid and never reopened.

It was a bit of a strange place, kind of got the impression customers were a bit of a distraction.
Big group of mostly family, I think, all working away and all hoping someone else would stop what they was doing and serve you.

 

Don'tknow but I've been using it with three prongs for a long time.

 

I needed somewhere to keep my many succulent cuttings, I've got so many and nowhere suitable to keep them, except two leaky cold frames, and out in the open air.
This is what I got ...




















It's 4 ft x 4 ft (that's all I could afford, and that's all I had room for anyway) and as you can see it's full ... and there's a lot more that I can't fit in there !

They won't be able to stay there over winter because it will be too cold if we have a frosty spell, so I'll have to make room in the other greenhouse for them (the one by the house, where all my cacti live) They're going to be crammed in, but they'll be dormant so it won't matter.
Then next spring they can go back in here

 

That's a great set-up @Michael Hewett

 

That is a LOT of succulents! I like the wire shelving too.

 

At both sides of my old garage there are two alley ways, leading out to the road that passes the bottom of my garden, and years ago I had them covered with sheets of perspex, and I had doors put at the ends.
This resulted in two sheltered areas where I've been growing tomatoes cucumbers etc, and keeping frost tender plants over winter ... etc

Over the years the perspex became loose and worn, and rain was coming into the shelters, and since I now use the south-side shelter as a 'potting shed' and didn't want water dripping on my head while I worked in there, I had a new roof constructed.
(I had one put on the north-side shelter a few years ago)

Old roof from the outside :-



Old roof from inside the shelter :-



New sloping roof made from Polycarbonate sheets :-





From inside :-



Little potting area at blocked end of the shelter (where it once opened to the outside) and there's quite enough room there for me



Looking the other way towards the door coming in from the garden (with some junk on the floor waiting to be disposed of !) :-





I'm going to enjoy pottering and potting in the newly roofed shelter this autumn, and next spring I'll be able to sow seeds and repot my cacti in there, without "Raindrops keep falling on my head"

 

Love that @Michael Hewett. An ideal set-up

 

A great use of "waste" space, Mike. You've given me ideas about the gap between my shed and the wall...

 

Thanks @Bluejayway and @Liriodendron, I haven't got room for a proper potting shed so I use this shelter.
I'm pleased to have inspired you @Liriodendron

 

That looks perfect @Michael Hewett . Where's the kettle?

 

That a great looking little grow house Michael

 

You can never have too many places undercover IMO.