The Greenhouse and garden at Harrod Horticultural HQ has been thriving in recent weeks, but the bank holiday weekend has caused us a few problems. We water as much as possible before weekends, but with the bank holiday and the weather hotting up a few of the seedlings in the greenhouse did succumb to the heat, the Kale seedlings were a casualty and we also lost some of our courgette plants, which were looking so promising!
Well lesson learnt and we are already looking into ways of improving the irrigation so we don't get caught out again over weekends. There has already been talk of a soaker hose being set up along with capillary matting to help in the future and we are also getting some shade netting.
How do I stop my greenhouse from overheating?
Greenhouses get hot! Although this can be really beneficial and great for your plants and helps you to extend the growing season, overheating can also be a major problem. There are a few ways to combat this:-
- Ventilation - It is important to have good ventilation in the greenhouse and autovents are a great investment. These open and close depending on the temperature and makes sure there is some ventilation on hot days if you are not around to open the windows and doors. Slatted louvre vents can be fitted, replacing a solid glass panel and again help the air to circulate and are also available with automatic openers. Many greenhouse heaters have a fan option which is a great way to just circulate the air in the greehouse and don't forget to open the doors on hot days!
- Shading - There are a number of products available that offer shading in the greenhouse from paint you can use on the glass through to reflective foils, but we rely on our Greenhouse Shade Netting. Easy to install, the shade netting can stop scorching of young plants and seedlings offering some welcome relief to strong summer sun.
- Watering - make sure you keep plants watered and set up an irrigation system or some kind of automatic watering system for when you are unable to water your greenhouse plants.
Although we lost some of the courgettes to the heat, there were still a few plants that survived and although they were looking limp we planted them in one of the raised beds and after a few days they were starting to perk up again.
We had more luck with our pea plants and wanted to get them planted out around our square steel obelisk in the newly built raised bed. We have used a few canes for some added support for the small plants, but these will soon wind their way up the steel plant support. A couple of our customer service team seemed dab hands at the planting, quickly getting the plants out from the rootrainers. The cells unclip so you can easily remove the plug plant and put straight into the planting hole. The plants were spaced around the obelisk and fingers crossed will give us a great harvest this year.
The sprouting broccoli continues to look good in a raised bed and the tomato plants in the greenhouse are also doing well. So with the weather staying warm we are making sure there is a regular watering rota and we are also trying to sort out some shading and improving the air circulation in teh greenhouse.
We are finding out that each gardening disaster is another lesson learnt and makes us more aware of gardening pitfalls in the future.
Happy Gardening!
