Note 17: In from the Cold - chutney, salad and summer pots
There’s been a lot of activity in the greenhouse over the last few weeks. The tomato plants, picked and enjoyed for the last few months, have been taken out but not before we filled a trug with the unripened fruit. This went into the kitchen where it’ll be transformed along with onions into a chutney that should see us through to the spring.
The vacated bed had a few buckets of homemade compost added to the nutrient-depleted soil along with a sprinkling of chicken manure pellets. The soil, primarily a commercial compost, was rather dry and proved to be somewhat hydrophobic but after several days of repeated wetting it started to behave as required. At this stage I sowed a winter salad mix comprising Mizuna, mustards, spinach, and pak choi. Raked in and watered, germination was very quick with several seedlings showing after four days.
Outside and with the threat of frosts now imminnent it was time to bring in the summer pots (pictured). These comprise tender species such as echeverias, aeoniums, pelargoniums, lemon verbena, crassulas, and Pachyphytum. The large outside troughs are still planted primarily with pelargonium tomentosum - that rampant mint scented ‘geranium’ that scrambles and climbs as it searches for garden domination.
The same can be said for its neighbour Petunia ‘Red Velour’ which has a similar propensity for heights if given the chance. Both these plants, too big to be brought into the greenhouse, will be ‘cropped’ for cuttings and propagated with the aid of a heated unit. Throughout the winter we keep the greenhouse around 5 degrees. At this temperature I quickly identify the plants that resent any suggestion of ‘cool’ as I found out last year with a tray of 24 beautifully grown young Coleus which sadly had to be consigned to the compost heap by December.
