In The Greenhouse with Lila Das Gupta Today’s lesson is a very simple one.When you go on holiday, or slip away for a few days: get someone to look after the greenhouse. I’ve just come back from the most magical few days in Santiago de Compostela, in north west Spain, for a surprise 50th birthday […]
Here’s an urgent reminder to anyone reading my diary early in the month. March is at the extreme end of the planting season for bare rooted trees and shrubs – field grown plants that are not sold in containers. They are traditionally planted between leaf fall and bud burst so when the weather starts to […]
In The Greenhouse with Lila Das Gupta As much as I love my small greenhouse, its arrival also created a huge design problem in the garden, compounded by the oversized shed (where else do you keep 5 bikes?) and the obligatory trampoline. Add to that the increasingly boxed-in feeling from neighbours extensions along the side […]
In The Greenhouse with Lila Das Gupta I love the way that every hobby has particular kit associated with it that assumes cult status. Years ago, when I did a brief stint as a bicycle mechanic, everyone lusted after ‘double butted, curly lugged’ Reynold’s tubing on their frames. Trawling round the internet looking for little […]
A few years back, there was an ad on TV for some sort of ready meal. In the 10 minutes it took to ‘boil in the bag’, the woman was able to use the extra time to take up the cello, get as fit as Madonna or complete her Phd. I thought about this the […]
This winter is like the winters of old and is the coldest for over ten yars, with snow and chilling winds. It will be interesting to discover how many of the plants that have overwintered over the past few milder years, still survive. Unfortunately, the thermostat on my greenhouse heater failed during one of the […]
In The Greenhouse with Lila Das Gupta Obviously this was not the week to let rip in the greenhouse: my sweet peas and peppers have been moved into the dining room to await the melting of snow. I’ve consoled myself with scrubbing out pots with a pot brush (hygiene is vital in a greenhouse) and […]
In The Greenhouse with Lila Das Gupta I have just spent the most magical first day in my new greenhouse. The bulk of it was spent “feathering the nest”: sorties to the shed to bring in supplies of compost, propagator, labels, hand tools, trays, seeds, radio, riddle, watering can, seat. Then came the final moment […]
In The Greenhouse with Lila Das Gupta How do you use an auto-vent? When is the best time to damp down the greenhouse? Have I got too much condensation? Whenever I’m new to a subject I like to enlist the help of experienced friends for advice, but I also like to bury myself in books […]
In The Greenhouse with Lila Das Gupta I know that the sap is always supposed to rise in spring, but in January I always find that I feel more like a salmon swimming in a stream or the mole from “Wind in the Willows”. I don’t quite understand what happens every year – there I […]
In The Greenhouse with Lila Das Gupta
I am not normally an indecisive person when it comes to shopping, nor, come to it, was my mother. Whenever we deliberated too much over a purchase, she used to say to us in her native Spanish ‘No es para casarse!’ – ‘It’s not as if you’re getting married over it!’
I wonder if she would be surprised to know that I spent more time deciding on which greenhouse to buy than I did over deciding whether to marry my husband. Neither is to be undertaken lightly: a greenhouse, like a husband, is for life.
The only way to get through January, is to think of spring! Those long dark days and evening are the ideal ‘Preparation Time’ for warmer days ahead, it’s a chance to browse through seed catalogues or websites and order anything from an ever increasing choice of new vegetable varieties so you are ready for seed […]
