Plastic covered mini greenhouses - winter use?

[Primrose]

Does anybody have one of those mini 4 shelved mini-greenhouses with a plastic cover? And if so, do you use it during the winter for growing or storing plants? If so, is it effective enough to provide sufficient protection? I stopped using mine once I'd planted my seedlings out and wonder whether it's worth bringing it back into use again soon for some pruned back pepper plants or possibly a few repotted frissee lettuce plants. One concern is whether the plastic cover would damage if we had severe frosts.

[Sue]

Hi Primrose. The main problem with these over the winter is they tend to get wind damaged. Either the plastic rips (certainly more of a risk in heavy frost when the cover freezes) or the whole thing ends up blowing around the garden. If you secure them too tighly in an effort to prevent this, the frame can end up being twisted out of shape.

A better option is a cold frame, which sits much lower and will allow you to grow some winter salads. Or if this seems too much of an investment, you could try a seed sprouter for your winter greens.

If you want to overwinter peppers, they will need the warmth of an inside windowsill. They do crop the following year, but fresh plants will perform better.

Hope this helps.

Sue

[Primrose]

Thanks Sue. I did have the unfortunate experience of having an unexpected gust of wind blow over my mini greenhouse with all my young seedlings in it back in the spring, which is one reason why I'm wary of trying to extend its use throughout the winter. I suspect that it would be more sensible to settle for my wide bay window sill, even if the occupants may not be terribly elegant. Might just live with the cloches for the low growing stuff like Frissee chicory lettuce though.

[Chantal]

It's not an answer to your question Primrose, but I use my little greenhouses in the summer for drying onions when the proper greenhouses are full

I do tend to put my mini greenhouses away for the winter.

[GIULIA]

I ended up using the innards of my little house as extra greenhouse staging, quite useful (you can make an extra shelf support with canes). However in its heyday I did a growbag of winter salad leaves in there once which did pretty well. You could start off your sweet peas in it too, but it's best with its back to a south facing wall if you can manage that (and a couple of bricks on the bottom shelf for stability). I think they're marvellous little gizmos even though they don't last long. By the way another tip is to hammer some really strong canes in right up against the front legs and lash them on with gaffer tape, that helps stop them falling over. (good for cheapo metal arches, tomato houses and other things).