Project Greenhouse

Bit of backstory: Year before last, my friend asked if we wanted some growing space in her dad's vinery. Silly question really. She took us down to have a look. I come from a place where tomatoes used to be grown commercially, and this was a full-size greenhouse in a vinery complex. Oh and it hadn't been used in about 20 years, and was up to the roof in brambles, some kind of thistle, and a few mammoth palm thingies. (I don't know proper names, I just (try to) grow stuff I fancy...) A few months of frantic hacking, weeding and digging later, we were just about ready for the plants that were desperate for planting out. (Another story there - I'd been given a load of seeds by a buddy who knew I liked growing stuff, and they were a year past their use-by. I hadn't had anywhere to grow stuff on a large scale. So, thinking very little would germinate, I sowed the lot. Practically everything germinated.)

We had a bumper crop of tomatoes, cucumbers, courgettes, peppers and chillis. Chillies? whatever. I went out and ordered a load more seeds ready for this year.

Except. And this is where I really want some help please. The area we cleared is now really boggy. The water table is pretty high - it used to be marshland a few centuries ago. Which is great in summer - we dug a slip-trench about 6' deep and within 2 days it was half full, so watering is not a problem. But now I'm doing my back in trying to turn sodden soil, and my dreams of planting onions and garlic over winter have dissolved.

My brilliant idea was to plant fruit trees down the middle of the greenhouse. Trees need lots of water so I am guessing they'd help slurp up the excess moisture, making it a better environment for growing veggies down the sides?

Am I completely deluded? If this would work, what kind of fruit (I was thinking orange/lemon, perhaps peaches? oh and I'd love a cherry tree or several?) do you advise in a greenhouse with a few panels missing, no heating, and a rather generous water table?

PS - I have pictures, if you want to see what I'm talking about.

 

If it is boggy I suggest you put a drain in ... if the trees will drink enough water (which I doubt, except for Willows and Poplars perhaps?) I don't think they will be big enough to be that thirsty for several years.

Trench. Perforated drainage pipe (comes on a roll), cover the pipe with gravel. Fill the trench back in again.

You need a ditch, or soakaway, for the pipe to discharge into.

However, I'm surprised that soil inside a large greenhouse can get waterlogged ... a spring perhaps?

 

Totaly agree with Kristen regards drainage ,But I think before you forge on you should try and find the reason for all this water if possible..I don't think planting trees in a glasshouse is a good idea and will probably cause more trouble than they would be worth in the long term ..
May I ask the size of the glasshouse? Has anyone had this water trouble before ?

Dave

 

Hmmm ... could it be a (relatively recently) broken pipe?

 

Nope, it used to be marshland, it's just low-lying and very wet. The chap who owns the land has turned some of it into farmed fishponds for course fishing, and all he had to do was dig a couple of large pits and they filled naturally. I think that was partly why they gave up with the tomatoes, and switched to cultivating carnations in buckets for a while instead.

Interesting idea with the drainpipe, I'll have to give that a go.

The greenhouse is, at a guess, about 130 by 30 yards. The patch we have cleared so far is insignificant in comparison to how much work still needs doing...

I don't mean to sound cheeky, I genuinely want to know - why is planting trees in a greenhouse not a great idea? I mean, I can see that I'd need to keep the branches trimmed back so they didn't go bursting through the roof panels, but what else would I be up against?

 

No offense taken....
But planting trees in a glasshouse to try and solve a drainage problem is in my opinion not the answer . The trees in the first instance would not even make any noticable difference to the water problem ,then providing you chose trees that would cope with very wet ground and they started to grow it would still be a number of years before they helped, you would have the initial costs plus if they did attain any size the on going pruning ,then they would start to compete for nutrients and light ..
I think if the land is marshland some serious drainage is going to needed.and it must have a place to drain away .
I hope you can resolve the drainage as a glasshouse that size would be awsume ,please let us know how it goes..

Dave

 

Thanks Dave I was working on the basis that if the ground was dry where the brambles still are, then trees must work! Plus I'm longing to have a growing area big enough for a small orchard *sigh* one can dream...

 

Sorry if I burst the bubble .I've always dreamed of a glasshouse that size to ..Don't give up though ,I'm sure there is a solution ..

Dave