Wind, weather, & Plastic greenhouses

[Nicos]

Guess who's got iceland frozen lasagne and oven chips tonight?

Oh the power ...eh?????

[Mrs Dobby]

Sorry to hear of the bad news Jan, but you will get over it and have a great crop and harvest this year, then you can look back and say 'Look at what I did, even after the problems', and that sense of satisfaction and enjoyment is priceless! Just keep plugging away and do it a step at a time!

[Jan]

Thanks for the encouragement Mrs D chatting on the vine has really cheered me up, and as it was nice & sunny this afternoon I did manage to get outside & clear up ready to set some more seeds as soon as I get them - thanks all

[mandyballantyne]

Jan,

Let us know what seeds you need, I am sure between us we can send you what you have lost.

Mandy

[Jan]

Oooh you're all so lovely, a real sense of community(why isn't there a smilie for 'blowing a kiss' when you need one?) Thanks to the generosity of you guys, the only thing I'm short now is toms believe it or not, and can't seem to get plum toms for cooking and freezing in any shops If anyone has got a few spare seeds they would be assured of a good home (this time, if it's not too late to set them?)

warm fuzzy thoughts going out to all, Jan X

[Sue]

Jan
You poor thing, but please don't let it get you down, long term that is, I know you are feeling down-hearted at the moment. I had one of those plastic greenhouses while waiting for my proper greenhouse to be installed, damn thing, however weighted down would fall over, get blown over etc and I lost a lot of plants. It's now doing duty as greenhouse shelving - all it's good for.
And if that wasn't enough, all my seeds at home were under threat from my youngest cat, Georgie, three of my sturdiest tomato plants were snapped in two but in despair and after reading something on the Vine, I got out the plasters and taped the stems up and it worked they grew into good plants. A seed tray ended up on the floor upside down, and after scooping compost and seedlings back in a number of them managed to survive. The plants I lost when she decided to climb inside the propagator could not be rescued so had to replant those.
Have learned my lesson, every plant this year is safe and under cover so that Georgie can not wreak havoc again.
Keep smiling!!!
Sue

[eskymo]

I know how you feel - kind of - it happened to me with my first small plastic greenhouses but I weighed them down with bricks and after that they were fine. When I got my big walk in plastic greenhouse I read a lot of posts on here and also got a lot of advice from other grapes and tied the thing to my fence and pulled the ropes over the top of the greenhouse and attached them to stakes I'd banged into the ground - Our garden is like a wind tunnel and amazingly the greenhouse had stayed put for a year now...although after every windy night I do open the curtains with half closed eyes as I dread to see devastation, but luckily it's not happened yet.

[Jan]

Thanks Sue & Eskymo for your kind messages, and thanks for the advice about taping up the toms - I hadn't realised that but have binned them all now anyway

i was thinking about some of the things to be learned from personal disasters - I have learned that;
* No matter how sheltered the area, never underestimate the power of the weather
* Never underestimate the thoughfulness of others
* Never plant all your seeds in one go, save a few back just in case
* Never underestimate the powers of recovery - plant as well as human
* Everything happens for a reason
* Never underestimate the depth of feeling we put into growing & nurturing

What have other grapes learnt from personal disasters (of the growing kind or other)?

[vicki]

Never under-estimate the power of something as small as a caterpillar!!

And life is just too short to bear grudges.

[mrskp]

Never believe that you planted crocus in the strawberry bed ! The shoots will actually be weeds ! (going out there to have a good root round today and hoik out the interlopers).

Sorry about your g/h Jan. You will read at least one story like yours every season! The mini g/hs should come with a health warning ! I had my disaster last year and went out and bought two big g/hs on the back of it !

I sowed some sweetpeas last weekend (to supplement my rather large stock - where am i going to put them all ? no idea but you can never have too many !). Stuck them in the leccie propagator and they germinated really fast! So don't delay - sow some today !

good luck with the rest of the season.

[plot apprentice]

hi jan, there will be a happy ending to this one come early/mid/late summer.
Guess who,s too chicken to put his plastic g-house outside now...????

[Jan]

Hi there plot apprentice, I think you're very wise i agree with mrskp they should come with a health warning Anyway, good luck with your growing this year, best wishes, Jan

[mrskp]

I found a cute wee system somewhere last summer, which involved lots of bolts into concrete, seemed a bit excessive for a £9.99 plassie g/h but am sure it would have worked. I ended up weighting down the bottom shelf and tying the back of the top to thick branches in the hedge !

Didn't move then but was a bu**er untying them every time I wanted to move the thing (to cut the hedge) !

[Mushroom]

Hi
The same thing happened to me last year also with my ex plastic greenhouse.
There were heavy plants in there and a couple of big rocks at corners on the botton shelf too.
I had got 2 plastic greenhouses from a garden centre so they werent cheap, i still have the larger one unpacked which I now dont want to use.
I heard on gardeners world that they can be used insted inside a glass greenhouse to a warmer temperature zone inside for plants that need hotter conditions, so i might use it for that (once i have a greenhouse).
personally I dont think they should be sold as this must happen every time! An online site selling them which allows customer reviews had a couple of people saying the same and that they had returned them for a refund.

[Doggler]

Tee hee. This happened to me too! Woke up to find my mini-greenhouse had gone AWOL during the storms, took a few days before we noticed it had landed in the neighbours garden. Luckily they were really good about it and no damage had been done. Still, was a good excuse to give it a wash before I started sowing.