Greenhouse Wrangled!

A year after we finished our self made wooden lean-to greenhouse we have completed the beautiful aluminium one, given to us by our great old friends Mary and Gary.

It's been quite an adventure, spanning 3 months, gales, heatwaves, blizzards, and floods, to now being in production, quite literally!

This will extend our vegetable growing season, giving a further 120 square feet of under glass growing. We are delighted!

Here's the journey in photographs:

at home - in situ at Mary & Gary's

dismantling begins - March 2013

de-glazed

one greenhouse kit!

glass - much of this was not to survive the Easter snowdrifts intact

meanwhile.... digging the foundations

a lot of digging! but all that soil was to come in handy

not being surveyors, we didn't realise just what a slope that is

a good three feet..

ready to go

an ingenious mixture of rubble and block - not easy to level though!

Gary erects the first piece of frame

all corners up

looks OK?

coming together well

frame more or less complete

ready for the glass

getting things square - ish

looking the part - way across the garden

glazed

now for the beds

digging down - over three feet of good soil to 'harvest'

posts and scaff boards - just the job

bed edging

the glacial clay below the soil. This will be at least two feet down

the path to the underworld!

a useful way to get rid of lots of rubble

finished!

chuffed to bits!

and finally planted

in production

hanging tomatoes

lettuce, sewn Wednesday, germinated Friday

a Belotti Bean from Claire

ideal soil conditions

Happy Days!

May turns to June

At last! a spell of warm weather. The Met office say that March to May have been one of the coldest and wettest on record - we agree to that!

Still, it's all forgotten now.....

Here's some pictures of out and about in the last week:

afternoon sunshine pours past Elaine's felt creations

The Gallery: light and airy

a day later - hailstones!

tulips and magnolia

evening sun on part of our stone collection

lunch at Greencastle - looking over to Carlingford

lunch at Greencastle - Cranfield Light

lunch at Greencastle

a heron down by the river

calm in Lurgan Park

tonight at Turnip House

flowers (the first) on our Rowans

cow parsley in the car park - very Chelsea Flower Show!

The Great House - and it's magnificent context - due a roof in September!

flowers on the broad beans

two rows of beans

potatoes up!

apple blossom

apple blossom

views down the Green Lane

Frank's cattle in the evening sunshine

lady's smock in abundance

our newly gifted copper beech - like a jewel!

the view to Slievenaboley from the far seat

Old Man Willow - old water pipe and midges