Armorel's Uncle Frank's Greenhouse garden

We are lucky enough to have a big garden with enough space for two greenhouses – my big Alton cedarwood (18ft x 12ft) which lives at the bottom of the garden and Uncle Frank’s Hartley white coated aluminium (12ft x 8ft) which is only a few steps from his kitchen door. Mine is almost 20 years old and is starting to show signs of age, while his is a little younger and has weathered rather better.

This year, I’m helping Uncle Frank with his greenhouse because, at the age of 82-going-on-83, he’s finding it increasingly hard to manage looking after it. His Parkinsons means that his hands shake too much to be able to sow seeds or transplant small seedlings. So I’ve grown cucumbers and tomatoes from seed, potted them on until they’re in 4" or 5" pots and cosseted them on a windowsill until big enough to move into the greenhouse.

Unfortunately there’s a whole pane of glass missing on the west side of the roof and that could really do with replacing (but getting glass here on the islands can be a slow and expensive business – hopefully it will be ready soon). In the meantime, I’ve got the Coolglass to paint on the glass to shade the plants, the growbags have arrived, the gro pots and cane supports are here … so we’re almost set to go!