Newbie with greenhouse!

Hi. I'm new here. Just put up a greenhouse this week. I'm growing strawberries and tomatoes and from seed, lettuce, tomato, cucumber, cress, onion, beetroot, radish and peppers. Any tips would be much appreciated. Thank you.

 

Morning Helen and welcome

A greenhouse is a fantastic addition to a garden.

For me, lettuce seed germinates best outside at this time of year......too hot and seeds wont germinate. Most veg seeds too prefer germinating outside now I think.

Just avoid stuffing too much into the gh......growth will be rapid, esp with tomatoes, so give them space. My first year growing tomatoes in a gh taught me a lot.....it was like a jungle in there

All a learning curve though so just enjoy your gh Helen.

 

Thank you very much for the advice, I've lots to learn but looking forward to the journey!

 

Hi,

If you have not already seen them , do look at @Janes recent greenhouse posts , just below yours, where she was looking for the same sort of advice and hopefully got some helpful answers.

 

That's great. Thank you.

 

Hello @Helen Evans. I have a greenhouse that size and at the moment I have my hot peppers growing in there. I don't grow any "climbers" in mine because the highest point is 8' and that's in the middle. I have tweaked mine with all sorts of things over the years and hope that some of my experiences will help you with any questions you may have.

A location in your profile would help a lot with giving advice. As you can see, I'm Canadian and in a zone 5a so I am battling some pretty harsh conditions and can only use mine as a season extender as it is too expensive to heat when it gets to -15f.

Welcome to the forum and have fun!

 

Thank you very much for your advice. Much appreciated x

 

Hi. Thank you very much for all that advice. Not got an auto vent opener, the hubby works from home so he can do that job! My tomato plants are about 6 inches high at the moment .

 

Hubby Auto Openers are really handy! Mine aren't budging today because it is only 13c and cloudy.

I use capillary watering in my little hobby houses. Saves lots of water.

 

I'm learning everything as I go along! There's some great tips, help and advice on here!!

 

Hi! I'm just getting my first greenhouse next week. Very exciting. I found all the advice on the forum to be really useful and significantly helped me to sort out what I did and didn't need. I found JWK's posts particularly useful for this. Will have to try and remember his advice re tomatoes and cucumbers. Will certainly be getting some form of irrigation in there after the heat of this summer. No hubby auto openers so I'm glad I got auto vents and auto louvres. I look forward to your progress reports Helen.

 

Good idea to run a pipe under the base of the greenhouse before it is built and then thread a hose through the pipe into the greenhouse if this makes sense if you have a water supply close. I have a big greenhouse (8ftx20ft) so it's great not always having to lug watering cans in and out. It is also very useful to have a hose inside the greenhouse to damp it down when it is very hot.
Enjoy your new "toy" I'm sure you will. I'm very pleased with my greenhouse which has stood some serious weather recently. There is only 1 thing about it I don't like. It's not big enough....you will hear most gardeners saying this however big theirs are.

 

Hi Greybelle, I had my first greenhouse this May, really useful I'm sure yours will be too. I'm only using mine for seeds and over wintering plants, I've been scavenging pallets from work and making duckboards to put under my staging to keep the plants off the floor and give me a bit more room.