The Frantic Gardeners’ Blog

I did get to pot up the yard long beans. still giving them a little bit of bottom heat [in the last bit before unheated greenhouse!] Also potted on toms for the first time. a bit early, but usually i am weeks late, so thought it might make a change! looked at the artichokes, and thought they also needed potting on, but my 5 seconds was over. hopefully do them tomorrow. as being a bit soft on the toms and yard beans, no room in the inn for runners and french beans, so will do them perhaps at le weekend.

BTW, for the record, we have a conservatory on the back of the house, south facing, containing a victorian grape that is massive! in summer, it is totally shaded by the vine, but at this time of year the vine leaves are still small and light good. it could be heated, as has radiators, but we object to sending all that heat out as has greenhouse glass windows [with holes] due to position it doesn’t tend to frost like a greenhouse can, but can still get v chilly in jan/feb. in it we have a home made propagator [big chipboard and wood box, lined with polythene, soil warming cable to a thermostat on the outside and elec. filled with sand, and a coldframe on the top. things tend to start in there. if v fragile [or vwintry] some get propagator lids over the trays within the propagator proper - as it were! i have some non-thermostat electric tray propagators as well, that we used a lot in previous house. these tend to be for overflows if too many seeds, or for those that have germinated, still need some warmth and i need propagator proper space. at the moment, these are providing a bit of bottom heat for yard beans and toms. [not for long!]