I’ve got a fairly big garden which I haven’t really done a lot with. This year I am changing that. I already had a small herb garden as well as a couple of berry bushes. I’ve added to that with a VegTrug herb garden and I’m currently expecting delivery for a VegTrug raised planter.
But while you can successfully grow quite a few things outdoors in Ireland there’s also a lot of things that either don’t grow very well outside here or will always be a little challenged by our “lovely” climate.
Also being able to grow some vegetables and herbs all year round would be nice.
A bit of perspective:
A small bag of fresh herbs costs around €1 in a supermarket.
If you grow your own the cost is essentially zero for some herbs that grow all year round or come back every year once they’ve taken root. Either way unless you’re planting crazy expensive seeds or bulbs economically it’ll work out in your favour.
Also there are some vegetables (and herbs) that are a pain to get locally. Like you can get them some of the time, but not consistently and in some cases it’s rare that they’ll be available. Growing stuff in planters will work to a point, but a glasshouse would definitely give me a better chance of success.
I’ve decided therefore to get a greenhouse, though I’m still struggling with choosing the model and the location.
Obviously it’ll be in the back garden, but where exactly is something I need to work out. After some of the issues I’ve had with the garden shed I’ll definitely be getting a concrete foundation or base put in for whatever type of glasshouse I go for. That means that the location will have to be chosen in advance and it can’t be changed easily.
So my decisions are:
- which style greenhouse?
- what size?
- where should I put it?
I know I don’t want a polytunnel or anything like that. I want a greenhouse in the traditional sense. But there’s quite a few different styles available and once you start looking at the style then you also need to decide on the size. I would love to have one of those gorgeous Victorian or Edwardian style
Location is another question. I’ve heard various bits of advice about this, but the garden isn’t that big so I suspect it won’t matter too much.
To help me with my research I got a copy of Greenhouse Gardener’s Manual which hopefully will give me a enough information to help me decide on the above, as well as giving me a hand with making the most of whatever I end up with.
At the moment my dining room table is covered in seedlings of various herbs and other plants and I hope to be able to plant at least some of these out into pots or planters outside in the coming weeks. So far this season I’ve already had a couple of casualties. Whether they were due to the frost or me doing something silly is unknown. But I know that it’s unlikely that chillis will survive outdoors by themselves.
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