Windowsill space

[womble]

I really want to know how everyone else copes with this. Up until this year my planting and sowing was a bit haphazard, with things going in whenever I felt like it. I never kept any records and always seemed to have space.

This last year, I've tightened up my growing and have begun to get sorted. The problem I had was in spring when my windowsills were overflowing with plants, I just didn't have enough space at all. Next year it looks to be worse.

I put in a new greenhouse this year and assumed it would solve the problem. Due to costs I decided to make it a cold greenhouse and realised it wasn't much better than outside for tender plants.

I'm wondering if smaller square pots would make a bit more space on the windowsills. What sized pots do you use for say, chillis and tomatoes?

Whats your solution to the problem?

[Alison]

Do you mean for full season growing or just during the spring? I don't put that much in the greenhouse until about April although a few things do over winter in there such as a potted peach tree. I sow chillies, peppers, tomatoes etc in tiny wee newspaper pots, about 2" (maybe less) across which don't take up much room on the window ledge. These then get potted on into increasingly larger pots which are spread around the house / conservatory and eventually into the greenhouse / outside. Like you, I don't really heat my greenhouse as I think it's a wanton waste of money and also I quite like not having to go outside to tend the seedlings when it's p*ssing it down!

[catgardener]

I only have one windowsill in my flat, so I also have the same problem. When things get really mad and I have run out of space I put up my four shelf plastic greenhouse in doors in front of my patio door. This works really well and gives me lots of extra space. I then put plants into the cold frame when it is warm enough outside.

[womble]

Its just in spring, all those tender plants that can't go into an unheated greenhouse.

I did try the 4 shelf greenhouse in a spare room, but I live in a oldish house and the windows are quite small, only one level got enough light really. I was doing an awful lot of juggling!

Maybe I will try putting out stuff into the greenhouse a bit earlier next year. I put the toms and chillis out in early May this year.

[lynda66]

I'm lucky i have a boiler cupboard, which is lovely and warm, and a couple of other cupboards which will soon be emptied and filled with young plants with wire mesh shelves....... anyway, i start everything off in modules in seed trays with a clear cover, and a growlight, you can get cheap ones with a full spectrum, that fit into an ordinary clip on light socket. this way, you can stack them up.

when they get too big for the trays, i put them outside, or if too early will plant them in square clear plastic containers, so they can still get the benefit of the light.

[Newbie]

If you assemble the 4 shelf greenhouse inside your proper greenhouse will that make it a bit warmer for your seedlings? I was planning on trying something along those lines this year.

[womble]

If you assemble the 4 shelf greenhouse inside your proper greenhouse will that make it a bit warmer for your seedlings? I was planning on trying something along those lines this year.

I wouldn't have thought so.

I did try putting a lot of big rocks in there, as it was nice and sunny in the daytime, but the temp still dropped rapidly at night. I ended up putting fleece over the rocks and tomatoes/peppers and that was in May.

[jackie j]

You can get a fleece cover for those plastic greenhouses that you put on under the plastic bit, dont know if it makes any difference.

[poozie]

my window sill grown seedlings always get too leggy so i'm not going to bother anymore. don't know what i will do, probably try them in my greenhouse at allotment which always feel quite warm inside even when in winter as the polytunnel plastic seems to absorb the heat.

[Gwen11ian]

You could just heat a small area in your green house.. maybe just a heating pad placed in the bottom of the four tiered plastic greenhouse inside the glass greenhouse? Like the kind you would use under a propagator? These use very little electricity, and it wouldn't be much if you're just using it in the early spring. A fleece over the whole plastic greenhouse on cold nights would give you extra protection by keeping in the heat better.

[maytreefrannie]

I'm lucky i have a boiler cupboard, which is lovely and warm, and a couple of other cupboards which will soon be emptied and filled with young plants with wire mesh shelves....... anyway, i start everything off in modules in seed trays with a clear cover, and a growlight, you can get cheap ones with a full spectrum, that fit into an ordinary clip on light socket. this way, you can stack them up.

when they get too big for the trays, i put them outside, or if too early will plant them in square clear plastic containers, so they can still get the benefit of the light.

Sorry to sound like a complete ignoramus but what's a growlight? It sounds like something you can use inside to give plants light or mimic daylight. If that's it, I never even knew there was such a thing.

Where can they be bought and how do you use them?

[Alison]

I wouldn't have thought so.

I did try putting a lot of big rocks in there, as it was nice and sunny in the daytime, but the temp still dropped rapidly at night. I ended up putting fleece over the rocks and tomatoes/peppers and that was in May.

It should be plenty warm enough for tomatoes etc in a cold greenhouse in May - is it a proper glass house or a plastic one?

[womble]

Its a glass one, how cold can tomatoes and chillis go down to then?

[Demeter]

I had tomato and pepper plants in a small plastic greenhouse from middle and end of March respectively this year. They had no additional heat / protection and survived the experience unscathed. It was full of other stuff from April onwards. I was germinating things indoors and then moving them outside once they had sprouted. I probably would have put more in the mini-GH in March if I'd been organised - but I only decided to grow some veg on 17 March!!

Next year I was planning to keep a few of the more tender things indoors until the worst of the weather is over, but now I have a big plastic greenhouse, most will go in there. I won't be babying anything - and I expect a few casualties but on the whole I reckon most things will be all right, and if not I'll have time for a second sowing. As you might guess, I'm attracted to the "grow 'em hard" school of thought!

(I will however be putting the mini plastic greenhouse inside the big plastic greenhouse and grow the more tender things inside that, for a double layer of protection.)

[Tam]

I often wish that I had added a conservatory to my home when I first moved in.