IT'S WORKING!!

Well Paul decided to buy a cloche and adapt it to cover the new heated bench and well the seeds appear to just love it!!

A view of the cloche covering the bench.

The view from further away.

Well just one week later and everything's coming up !

Seedlings showing in almost every tray!

The sweet pea's have now been taken out and placed on the shelf above to get more light.

The Ricinus Communis , mock castor oil plant ,an annual that gets quite big red leaves is already sprouting.

This area in front of the greenhouse Paul wants to turn into a hardy tropical style area, so despite the freezing cold he's been outside today moving shrubs and plants from one place to another while also pulling up weeds!
Because when we made this raised bed we had to plant it up straight away due to having the garden open to the public a couple of months later, we did not have a chance to treat it with any weed killer , so every year it gets lots of weeds especially nettles, so every year we spent ages pulling them out!
This area needs the plants to be divided and repositioned now Paul wants his Tropical look.

To help with his new bed he bought this large Palm late last year ,which he now needs to decide where to place! He said about maybe keeping it in a pot and moving it around but I think due to the size it needs to be put into the garden.

We have removed the trellis roof from the shaded area to allow the Heavenly Bamboo to have some head room.

So Spring is round the corner so Paul's already out in the garden working, I am called upon to don my boots and a warm coat to agree with any move before he re plants, as he hates it when I see the new placement only to say , why did he not put it a foot that way or this, so now he comes and gets me to save him having to move things twice! Terrible I know but that's my job!! :)
I'll not be appearing in the garden until it starts to warm up so about mid to late March I may do a few hours!
I'll be on Path duty, the stepping stones in the flower garden need to be raised as they have disappeared into the grass over the last few years and the path in the first garden by the house is full of grass and some of the edges have crumbled, so a clear out and possibly a redesign of this one, I am considering putting a raised edge either side , for Izzy our Westie, now she's almost blind I'm hoping it will give her a focus point to help her towards the house when she's outside alone.
So that will need to be done once the weather and temperature improves, until then I am just on place agreement duty!!



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SOWING SEEDS

Today sowed some seeds to start off on the new heated bench.

A few that need sewing in February.

all nicely sewn.

you can see the new bench.

On the shelf below Paul has Five Ginger plants.

A view of the new bench running across the back of the greenhouse with the lemon tree and other plants in front.

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MAKING A HEATED PROPAGATING BENCH

Well now we are heading through the last of the winter months, Paul's mind has turned towards projects in the garden. One of the things he wanted to set up in the greenhouse was a heated bench to use for propagating.

So he bought the items required to set one up. First off  he ordered some more staging which he added across the back of the greenhouse. Then he bought some decking boards to use to make the wooden frame needed to hold in the sand and heated cable.

These are the decking boards cut to size.

Screwed together to form the box. This then once in place on the bench in the greenhouse had a base board added that sits inside the frame on the wooden ledge shown above.

Then to the base is added some insulation foam, we had a couple of old pieces which we were able to reuse.

not shown is a layer of foil which Paul placed underneath this plastic sheeting.

 Onto this plastic you lay a layer of sand and then you are ready for the heating cable.

If you buy the thermostat from the same place as the cable , it will arrive all wired up ready for you to just put in place.

You make two holes in the side for the bench, one for the cable and the second for the Thermostat to be fixed to.

You lay the cable on the sand and link to the thermostat.

Then you cover the cable with another layer of sand and then you are ready to use your heated bench.



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