As you all know by now we are extremely excited about our new glasshouses. I don't know what it is about them. Maybe because we have waited so long for them to be usable? Maybe the knowledge that there is somewhere dry to work in the rain? Or maybe it's just the excitement of new growth and new life?
Whatever it is, I will be sharing all our excitement about it and keeping you up to date with whats growing.
So we have planted our first lot of flowering annuals and they have just started to grow(everything is a bit slower than normal due to the lack of heat). We will succession sow the annuals to try and ensure good colour in the gardens for the whole summer. We are also starting to propagate a range of plants from the garden to sell in plant sales. So far we have had Leucojums, Tracheystemon, Pulmonaria, Saxifrage, Evening Primrose, and you can look forward to buying Scilla peruviana, Tradescantia, and Smilascena as soon as the temperature rises.
Today the capillary matting arrived....
And it's quite beautiful- almost like felt
So, it is laid out on the benches and cut to size and then drenched in water. It is amazing how much water all those mixed fibres can hold.
The plants are then put back on top of the mat. The plants then have the capability of accessing the water through capillary action.... I won't explain that you can Google it!
It will also help to raise the humidity in the glasshouse and stop plants losing to much water through transpiration. Hopefully it will mean we wont have to water so often so it is more sustainable.
My top tip for you guys at home is to get yourselves a bit of capillary matting. When you are away on holiday and worried about your house plants, you can put some matting down so that it sits in the kitchen sink with the plug in and a couple of inches of water, and is laid out on the draining board. You can then sit your plants on the draining board to keep them moist while you are away.
... Alternatively I suppose you could use a towel?
