Impact of weather

[smallblueplanet]

Your garden looks smashing SBP…love your greenhouse!

Thanks Nicos. Yeah it started out as just a new greenhouse and base, and turned into a complete reworking. Relevelling, returfing and re-doing the beds as well, plus re-laying the patio and new paths. Cost a packet (labour is not even vaguely cheap dahn sarf) but it was worth it. Makes it so much easier to look after, it was a bit 'ruiness' before.

The greenhouse hasn't had a full work out this year but the high eaves is great, the toughened glass makes me less worried about accidents and the green bar-capping sets it off lovely!

[annie8]

I’m starting to feel like I am growing in such a different environment this year than most posts I see ( not just here but other sites and TV). Living in east central Scotland we are on the drier side of Scotland - although not dry in the way of Southern England, with the shorter season from being up north and not the same heat as down south. This year after a colder spring and the hot June (by our standards) we have not had a hot summer and it has been really changeable with lots more rain than usual. So my tomatoes are really behind and in my raised beds I am having much more slug and snail damage than I am used to because of the rain. I was just thinking about it because I listened to GQT this morning and it was all about coping with hot and drought conditions which is not at all what I have.

[rary]

I live in the west of Scotland, in one of the wettest dullest areas you can get, I have been harvestting my tomatoes since the last week of july, which compared to last year was a bit late, my greenhouse is 14x8ft. with eight windows fitted with auto vents, the tomatoes are growing in a soil filled raised bed, the tomato bed gets watered dayly all other plants are growing on capillary matting or seramis clay, the door do not get left open every day it depends on how warm I think it is, not necessarily how sunny, I don't take a lot of my leaves off as I think they are needed to give the tomato flavour, as Penellype has said tomatoes need heat rather than sunlight to ripen, I just came in from the garden a short time ago and as I was tidying up I noticed hidden amongst all the leaves of the surplus tomato plants that I had planted outside, there was a bunch of red tomatoes, I pulled them gave them a wash and tried a couple of them, they are far sweeter than those growing in the greenhouse, they have had no feeding other than what is in the soil, and watered by the rain, the only work I carried out on them was tying in and a garlic spray to keep snals off, the greenhouse doors can be kept shut for three or four days without any white or green fly problems as the tomato bed is planted with some basil and lots of French marigolds