Gardening – Greenhouse stocktake

The other weekend was a good one for me; a staff party on Friday, followed by my birthday on Saturday, followed by Father’s Day on Sunday, which happened to also be the first day of spring, and good weather to boot. It doesn’t get much better than that as far as I’m concerned.

Two days later, I crashed back to reality with miserable windy, rainy weather. But after a frenzy of seed-sowing and taking cuttings over the past few months, I have plenty to do in my little greenhouse. It is absolutely chocka, with pots covering nearly every inch of ground, including the path. The greenhouse is just a little one, two by three metres, but I have so many plants in there that I thought I should do a stocktake.

I’ve successfully overwintered a Cayenne chilli and two capsicums, which were cut back hard in June and are now resprouting; they’ll stay in the greenhouse for another summer before being replaced. Three Russian Red tomatoes were also overwintered and are now producing tasty fruit, but these will be pulled later in spring once replacements are ready. Surrounding them are 25 pots of tropical dwarf heliconia, which don’t survive well outside over winter. There are also 45 strawberry plants, which I’m using to get the jump on the season by starting them inside.

Also overwintering are half a dozen pots each of ginger, turmeric and galangal. These are used for Asian style dishes and as a deliciously healthy addition to smoothies. These tropical crops prefer to be on the drier side over winter, so keeping them in the greenhouse with only occasional watering achieves this.

Still quite small are eight moonflower plants, which I grow for their aptly named, unearthly flowers. By midsummer, the flower buds will begin to swell and in the evening they will literally open before your eyes into saucer-shaped blooms, which pour out an intoxicating fragrance.

Even smaller and slower growing are 25 frangipani seedlings of half a dozen varieties. Once mature, these will be potted up and shifted under the northern or eastern eaves of our house, where they get maximum sun and warmth in summer and shelter from the cold and rain over winter.

Even more cold and wet-sensitive than frangipani are the yellow and red pawpaw, of which I’ve managed to coax one of each seedling to survive. I suspect I’ll need to keep these inside the greenhouse year-round; not a problem while they’re small, but a future issue to resolve as they do get quite large.

The two eggplant seedlings will make their way outside, as I’ve yet to get consistent fruitset inside my insect-proof greenhouse. The Lebanese cucumber and the zucchini can stay inside until they get too large. They are largely self-pollinating and the much appreciated early cucs and zucs will soon be overcome by the avalanche of produce from outdoor veggie gardens.

Likewise, most of the tomato seedlings will also make their way outside in late September to early October as the weather warms up. With three Amish Paste, six Roma, six mixed heirloom varieties, two more Russian Red (from cuttings) a Supersteak and a Sweet 100, all vying for space, the warm weather can’t come soon enough.

Andrew Steens