Kitchen Garden Forum

Hi all

This is a big ask so I hope you are all feeling friendly.

I bought a Robinson 8 x 10 last year and just grew tomatoes and peppers etc with a few flowering plants like carnations.

This year I would really like to make it work hard as a growing place as well as providing the seedlings for the raised beds in the garden and the allotment.

I need some help with planning the crops and the rotation month by month so I use the space well. I know this depends on what I want to grow but I wonder if a kind person already has a plan that I could copy and tweak a bit. I would also love to grow flowers too so bringing on seedlings and cut flowers maybe on the bench.

I have two beds roughly 10' x 3' running east west with a full length 3' wide bench over the top of the northerly bed with a half width shelf above that.

I would be grateful for any help or maybe even the recommendation of a good book.

Thanks and Happy New Year to everyone

David

David, I notice that nobody has sent you a reply yet, so here it goes. You don't say whether you have any heating in the greenhouse which, I think, would be the determining factor on the timing of spring sowing. Overall, it's important to play it by ear and act according to the weather. Some springs I start sowing brassicas in the cold greenhouse about early March but if it's still really cold (we live fairly high up and rather exposed), then I might wait for a bit. Hardy annuals are sown in March whatever the weather!

I sow the onions and a batch of early leeks in early February in roottrainers (multi-sown) on a windowsill in the house and they only go into greenhouse when they are about two months old and then to the outside.

We have an oil-filled tubular electric heater in the greenhouse but that is usually only used on cold nights in April/May and only very occasionally during the day.

Sorry, it's not a plan, but I hope it gives you a bit of help.

Thanks Monica, I know people are busy so I'm patient and hopeful that a kind soul will help me out with a plan.

Thanks for your advice it is is useful, its all the little wrinkles that you can pick up that make this so fascinating. I do have heating, both a heated propagator and a fan heater with a thermostat and frost protection. I was also thinking of building a room within the ghouse out of bubble wrap so I can heat that bit a bit more cost effectively.

best regards

David