I抳e left the greenhouse to it抯 own devices for the last few days as I抳e been working away. Normally I leave the key with a neighbour, who diligently waters everything in my absence, but most of the established plants are at the end of their cropping period so they didn抰 need much attention really. Now it抯 time to tidy up.
It抯 not something I抦 that good at and already the glasshouse has several areas stacked with gardening equipment, pots, trays and all kinds of useful things. I hate to throw things away and so anything that might be useful is 憇tored?for future use. This means that there抯 less growing space and it抯 something I need to address.
October is very much a tidy up month in the greenhouse. There抯 a fair bit of algae growing on the aluminium frame that needs cleaning up and I must remove all the dead plants that are starting to go mouldy. It抯 essential to do it as soon as possible to prevent the spread and overwintering of fungal spores. Another important thing to remember at this time of year is to keep the greenhouse well ventilated. Fresh airflow prevents the build up of fungal diseases and keeps the greenhouse air clean.
I also need to make space to overwinter any tender plants and establishing cuttings and I need somewhere to grow on the oriental veg that I sowed last month. There抯 plenty of room really, but I must do some clearing up and clearing out. Cleaning the used flower pots now gives a head start for when I want to start sowing seeds, and checking whether I have enough labels and marker pens for the spring is another useful task for October, before it gets too cold to spend hours in the greenhouse.
Plus as I can抰 resist sowing something in the autumn, I抳e got a few pots of broad beans to sow now. If I抦 honest, although I love broad beans, I actually grow them more for their leaves than the pods that come later, and over the winter the chance to harvest even a handful of fresh broad bean leaves is irresistible. So my next task when I get time to get out into the greenhouse is not only to do some serious tidying up, but to also sow some broad bean seeds.
The great thing about broad beans is that they are really easy to grow and they are hardy. A cool greenhouse is a great place to start them off and grow them on. Some gardeners swear by an autumn sown crop, for although they crop only slightly earlier than their spring-sown counterparts, they are usually more resistant to blackfly infestation as they flower a bit earlier in May/June.
You need to choose a long pod variety especially suited to autumn sowing. Aquadulce Claudia is the most popular one for this purpose. You can sow them in situ but I prefer to start them off in pots (rather than modules or root trainers that I would use for spring sown broad beans). I then overwinter these in my greenhouse. I pot them up as they develop, a pot size at a time, or they sit and sulk. I don抰 heat my greenhouse at all, but if it is very cold I like to stand the pots on polystyrene sheets (salvaged from a new fridge delivery) and cover them over with fleece. If you plan to plant them out in the garden later, (I may just keep mine in the greenhouse for early spring greens) then dig in some well rotted manure or garden compost into the area you intend to plant them and cover over the soil with black polythene or old carpet to warm it up from January and then plant them out in March/April. If you抳e kept them fit and well, then they should romp away by then.
