Greetings!

[Joules]

I'm the owner of a mature garden (100' by 30') on the outskirts of Bristol. Back before our son was born, my partner and myself had a fairly successful kitchen garden at the sunny top of the garden, but being new parents kind of put the kibosh on serious gardening for a good few years - and then the sprog wanted to run and kick balls and climb trees, so what we could grow was a little curtailed. Now he's 13, and we've started growing to eat again, in a small way, with a couple of small veg beds at the top of the garden and a medium sized greenhouse (Freecyled! Our greatest find ever) which at the moment is overflowing with tomato, galia melon, cucumber and pepper plants and a whole load of other seedlings.

We've been eating organically for over 20 years, and I'm doing my best to keep the garden organic as well - we have two small pools which have produced several dozen frogs over the last couple of years, lots of birds and a visiting hedgehog who help keep the pests down - but I am forced to use a weedkiller on the bindweed (been fighting an unending battle with bindweed since we bought the house 18 years ago).

I'm very new to greenhouse growing, and am always on the lookout for tips and advice. My knowledge ends with growing marigolds to help fight greenfly!

[peanut]

Hi Joules,

Welcome to The Vine!

Your garden sounds great! Afraid I can't help with the greenhouse bit as this is my first year with one too....someone else will be along soon I'm sure with lots of helpful tips.

[SarzWix]

Hi Joules, welcome to the 'Vine My sis used to live in Bristol, but managed to buy a place in Minchinhampton (sp?) last year, lucky girl. Your garden sounds fab, apart from the bindweed - think nearly everyone struggles with that one!
As for your greenhouse, the main thing is the balance between warmth & ventilation - without ventilation temperatures can end up over 40�c, which creates problems with flower drop on toms & peppers. But if the temp drops below 10�c this can cause a check in growth, or 5�c which could finish them off altogether! A max/min thermometer is a must, if you don't have one already, so you can see what's happening overnight & in the middle of the day, & adjust things accordingly!