and I only just remembered to take a pic of it washed after I had started to bubblewrap it!!!!
at the end of each year I label and roll up each piece and then store it in the shed until it is needed again
I then use the ladders and the fiddly little green things to attach it to the inside of the greenhouse. On the roof I use extenders, well thats what I call them, they hold the bubble wrap away from the glass by about an inch, I find this helps stop condensation, which is a killer for some of my banana/ensetes as they have to be kept more or less dry over winter!
here we are all done, with some of the plants back in. You can see the heaters are in place, I have 3 in this greenhouse two fan and one tube. In the small greenhouse I have one tube and one fan heater. All for the love of tropical plants!!
One of the Ensetes is lying down to drain out all the water, I will have to keep doing this untill the soil is dry, as any water stored in the stem is a killer, when it freezes, which hopefully it won't!
I showed you the other day the bananas I had to dig up, on the patio, first you have to cut off all the leaves....
which I think is sad as the leaves are beautiful, they didn't all go to waste as my neighbour is a primary school teacher and apparently their year 3 is studying the jungle so she took a couple of the leaves in for them to see and feel!
amazingly these plants only have very small root balls considering the size the plants get!
I have them sitting upside down
draining out some of the water, fortunately they are not too heavy!
this is one of the 'Xanthosoma' that also had to be dug up, great colour!
Greenhouse beginning to fill up now!
In the pots on the left are my Egg Yams, lopped off as I wouldn't have room for everything and there leaves!!!
Looks quite colourful in here now, I wonder where I'm going to put my brugmansias????????????
6 comments:
Is the bubble wrap an added inslalation against the cold? It looks like a lot of work, but worth the effort to save those beautiful plants. I am quite envious of your greenhouse. I store all my tender plants in the garage over the winter months, and always lose a few.
I do indeed bubble wrap to help insulate against the cold and with the heaters can usually manage a temp of between 5C-10C
Gosh that was exhausting I am going to have a rest......
I am green with envy! I would LoVe a greenhouse of my own!!!call me green..wink
You don't have to throw away the banana leaves, they are great for cooking. Just take out the middle stemy thing and careful fold the leaves. You can freeze them at this point. When you want to use them take one or two out and quickly run it over a gas burner to make it pliable. Now you can wrap up chicken or fish or potatoes with tomatoes, chiles, spices, rice, whatever. Wrap the leaves around and tie. Put in oven-proof pan and bake. The leaves impart a nice flavor and keep things moist. You could probably sell those things to an Indian store. I also use the leaves for tablesettings and serving vessels. Easy clean-up.
Wow! how fascinating, I shall definately do this next year as they have already gone to the 'tip'!!!
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