It’s a hot time undercover

Ruth tends greenhouse plants as summer advances

- Ruth Hayes 

THE greenhouse has had a busy summer, with tomatoes, chillies and courgettes fruiting well. Its shady shelved area has also become home to a hippeastrum resting after flowering, a Venus fly trap that had been by the pond but started to look less than happy during the July heat wave, and a sprouting avocado stone found in the compost heap.

We’ve been watering and feeding the tomatoes consistently but somehow skipped a beat during the very hot spell as one plant has fruits with blossom end rot, caused by erratic nutrient take-up. It’s a one-off as, luckily, the others are all developing normally.

Our mini greenhouse is shaded by the house and is perfect for germinating seeds and growing seedlings.

It is currently hosting trays of seedling lupins and violas as well as some larger Brompton stock seedlings that I potted on a few days ago.