This May i seeded parsnips, carrots runners and dwarf beans, 4 tomato varieties, cucs, melons, red and white onions, shallots, garlic, leeks, peppers and so on. I started everything my greenhouse from seed. I use troughs to grow most of my stuff in. They are large enough for anything and they dont dry out too easily in the heat. I have water trays for them too.

I have used my greenhouse for the cucs and melons. Every year i get the powdery mildew on my Telegraph cucs and it gradually spreads but this year i have only used Marketmore cucs. So far not a sign of disease!!! Market more are a little bit slower but worth it. They are a bit shorter than the Tels. F1 Emir is the melons i have. Last year i had a result so i am sticking with it.

Last year I used canes to prop everything up and not very successfully. What started off looking ok didn’t really have the balls to do the job. There was also the danger of a cane poking me in numerous place and causing injury so the whole set up was flawed. Everything had to be constantly adjusted and fiddled with. I was also washing the leaves with soapy water to clear the mildew so I spent a lot of time in my greenhouse. As soon as I would get up I would be out there opening the g/h up to get the air in, searching for newly infested leaves and getting prickled to death by the cuc leaf hairs. But I had a fantastic harvest from all the plants until the Tels gave up the ghost and passed out. Unbelievably the Tel cucs were as big and bigger as the shops and the MM’s were bigger than average too. I now know that if you fight the mildew you can get a good result but you will rarely beat it, leave it and it will destroy everything and you will have nothing. I have no fight this year so I am making it easy.
I have drilled holes into the floor of the g/h and put canes into them then threaded horizontal wires through the canes at different heights. I have secured the wires to the framework of the g/h so they are very secure. It was guesswork for the horizontal wires but I can add string later on if I need to. My cucs and melons are in the troughs and there are 2 plants in each. It was so much more difficult with the horrible cane structure that was put up last year. I now have loads of room and no dangerous canes sticking out everywhere, result!


This picture was taken in May 2010. I am still constructing the support system.





Next are my toms. These are in my carport. I grow them up against the wall as its in the full sun all day. This picture is from the beginning of June. They are very small in this picture. You can also see melons here and my potatoes are growing in the bags.



If all goes well i will have Gardeners delight, Moneymaker, Plum and Gartenperle which are basket i think. The carport is great as i can keep everything out there when its really cold,its better than the g/h.