Cleaning the Greenhouse

This was the greenhouse this morning. Just to remind you, it was hit by a tornado several years ago and a lot of the glass was broken. We decided then to replace the broken glass with sheets of plastic that we had and for the past five years that has been ok. However, plastic deteriorates with time and sunlight and it has now got to the point where you can't see through it at all. Coupled with the fact that at the back of the greenhouse we "boarded" it up with planks of wood, well, it was time to sort it out.

Oh yes, and the grime...

You can see above how the grime collected between the panes of glass (above right where you can also see the black boards at the back) and also, worse, between the glass and the frame (above left - really disgusting!). You don't need to read the books to imagine what is hiding in all that grime - I'm quite sure some of it was moving...look at the cluster of eggs we found hiding between the plastic and the glass:

So we have established that it needed a really good clean! In order to do this properly all the glass had to be removed. Some of you may have heard that there's been a bit of a wind in France recently and playing around with glass is something to be done in calm weather. Today was the day. Not a breathe of wind, lovely sunshine, perfect.

In order to clean the glass I armed myself with a bucket full of the hottest water I could bear, a thick spongey cloth (this is glass remember and the edges are sharp - I have found four cuts on my hand from this job but nothing serious), two towels (for drying the glass - it's slippery and difficult to replace when it's wet), a toothbrush and an old scrubbing brush (the type used for dishes). All were required.

Max had other items - a flat headed screwdriver for removing/replacing the "W" clips and a nice collection of swear words for when the same clips flew out and hit him in the face - several times. (Also, a slightly peeved expression because he'd read my previous post about the greenhouse...)

The grime between the panes of glass was so thick that it took a fair bit of scrubbing - this was the job of the toothbrush. The hot water eventually soaks through the dirt so often I'd come back to one that "I'd prepared earlier". The scrubbing brush and the toothbrush were also used for cleaning the bits of frame normally under the glass - again, dirt had built up where the water runs down in gulleys. Yuck, Yuck, Yuck.

We took it slowly. First the roof glass was removed, cleaned, the frame cleaned, the glass replaced. Then the same process with the side glass.

This is the moment to introduce the hero of the day in action...(drum roll please)...

This really is not a one man job. Apart from anything else those pesky clips kept falling on the ground just when the glass was being held in place. However, we learnt something today - this is a job that is easier than we thought. Yes, it takes time and patience and has to be done calmly but it really was worthwhile.

This is the greenhouse as we left it this evening...

It's not finished yet - you might notice that the front on the right has no glass at all. All in all we need 14 new panes of glass (none of which were broken today) which we will get cut this week. I rather fear that will be the moment we discover it would be cheaper to buy a new greenhouse; I'll let you know!

The Greenhouse

A few years ago a tornado came through our garden. It started down in Bordeaux and followed a path north. When I say "through our garden", you could actually see the path of damage that it left with untouched trees and fields on either side. Our neighbour's barn roof was found in our moat. We were lucky that the chimneys fell away from the house and not through the roof. It was an exciting night.

Not surprisingly, our greenhouse was damaged. Max managed to save most of the glass and we put clear plastic in the "glass beyond repair" areas. Unfortunately the clear plastic is now opaque and I made a policy decision to get it all sorted out. It will also give us an opportunity to clean the grime out from the glass overlaps - they really are disgusting and no doubt harbour all sorts of government health warnings.

This sort of thing seems to have a sort of dance routine. When I suggested that we sort out the glass Max immediately pointed out that finding glass that precise size would be impossible. The glass came with the frame.
Glass-cutting places?
S'pose so...but we'll never find the clips to hold the glass in. It all comes as a kit.
Er, greenhouse accessories?
Won't find them.

You get the idea. Anyway, if anyone else is thinking of changing or replacing greenhouse glass I can recommend Two Wests & Elliot for the clips. I ordered them over the phone and they arrived within the week. For your reference, they are called w clips and z clips.

Now for the fun of getting the glass cut!

Cleaning up

Once a year I clean the windows in the house - usually in the spring but if we have a celebration coming up (last year it was a cousin's 65th birthday) I time it accordingly. If you only do them once a year they might as well be seen.

Last year, thanks to my son's ant farms being sited just in front of the kitchen window, I never managed to clean the kitchen window. On pain of death would I move those ant farms and the windows stayed grubby. Today we were looking at the difference two years' dirt makes compared with only one year's. This reminded me that the greenhouse glass had never been cleaned and it's been up for nearly seven years! So this afternoon Ralph (the same son) and I went up with buckets, sponges and one of those rubber window cleaning thingys and set to. A few bulbs coming up outside the front of the greenhouse suffered the inevitable boot treatment but I'm sure they'll forgive us.

The result is amazing. I had no idea how dark the inside of the greenhouse had become! I am now determined to replace the glass that was lost during a tornado that swept through our garden about five years ago. The plastic we put in (temporarily!) has long since lost its transparency. Unfortunately, whenever I mention new glass to Max he mutters about not having enough clips to hold the glass in and the cost of the glass will be more than the price of a new greenhouse (well, ok then....!).

I also spent some time taking out all the old plastic flower pots that have been shredded by time and goodness knows what insects. Also, all my seed packets have been shredded - my fault for leaving them in there but what on earth is in the paper and foil casing that provides such irresistable nourishment for these insects?

So the greenhouse is looking almost pristine and I have a great feeling of a job well done! I've already put some mesclun seeds in there and in a few weeks time I'll put some early carrots in there to try and get an early crop.

Outside in the veggie patch I've weeded all the beds and planted all the remaining onion sets. For anyone who's interested we've put in: Red Comred, white ones that I've lost the name of, and two types of shallots: Longor and Mikor. All the garlic, onions and shallots that I put in last autumn are coming up nicely.

This weeks jobs include weeding the flower beds and turning the potato plot again - this time with manure on it. Photos later in the week as there's nothing to see yet!

Sex in the greenhouse

After the total washout of last year, when the only successful tomatoes in the area were the ones grown in greenhouses, I decided this year to do the same. It was partly because I had too many successful seeds and it just seemed to make sense to leave some where they were! So, I have six outside that I bought (Coeur de Boeuf), another four outside in a small corner of the veggie patch that I grew from seed, the three in the greenhouse and three more that I scattered around the flower beds because I had to take some of the seedlings out of the greenhouse and it seemed a pity to waste them. On the whole, I'm glad I did all this as the six I bought all seem to be in a bad way. I suspect it's either mosaic virus or some sort of wilt but I don't know. They all have tomatoes on them so I will wait and see what happens. The greenhouse seedlings are a mix of small salad tomatoes and larger standard ones (I MUST start noting the varieties that I plant!).

Anyway, what's this got to do with sex I hear you ask? When I started work many years ago I used to have lunch with my wonderful grandmother from time to time as she lived just round the corner. She lived in a very sunny flat and grew tomatoes on the window ledge in pots. One day I arrived and she was shaking them, albeit gently. I couldn't understand it.

"Sex darling", she said. I was fairly sure that she wasn't asking about my private life although she could be fairly direct. I asked her to clarify.

"Sex, sex - you know, they have to what's it called? Pollinate, that's it." Hmmm, still not quite there. More clarification please.

"Up here there are no bees to do the sex for them so I shake them and the pollen from the top flowers falls onto the ones underneath." Ah, right.

I don't know if there was any scientific truth in her theory but why not? Yesterday I was in the greenhouse and just thought I'd give it a go. But I sneaked a look around first to check no-one was watching!