Come into my greenhouse.....

.....says Froggie! He was a gift from a friend and used to live in my craft room ~ she thought he was hilarious because of his solar-powered eyes 😵  I rather think he likes living in the greenhouse much better than the craft room 😉 

Of course, much like the kitchen garden, having a greenhouse is all new to me so I'm on a learning-curve.  I decided to go with baby plants from Marshalls again this time but I shall have a go at growing from seed next year.

For some reason I bought cordon tomatoes ~ I was convinced that I'd gone for bush varieties!  I don't have a lot of headroom above my staging, so I will pinch out the top of the plants once they get to the height of the bamboo canes in due course.  I went a little mad with the tomatoes, buying Marshalls' "buy any 3 packs for £15" offer LOL  There were more than three little plugs of the varieties, as well, so I ended up with rather a lot of plants just for the two of us ~ well, three I suppose as I like to send Beverly home with produce when I can 😍  I gave some of the extra plants to friends.  I've got: Paruche, an orange-coloured cherry tomato; Chocolate Cherry ~ self-explanatory, although I don't think they actually taste like chocolate!; and Buffalosun, a yellow/red beefsteak variety. 

I also went mad and ordered 15 dahlia tubers which Marshalls had on special offer.  I wasn't expecting them all to send up shoots, if I'm honest, but 14 of the 15 eventually came through so I'm really pleased.

I had a mega-tidy up in the kitchen garden, including the strawberry bed where I also had three Funberry plants.  It hadn't occurred to me that since these are a cross between a strawberry and raspberry, they would send out lots of shoots!  I've now replanted the original plants in large pots in an attempt to keep them from taking over, and potted up some of the babies I pulled out of the bed.  Hopefully they will survive as I didn't decide to save any of them until sometime after I had actually pulled them out!

The tomatoes seem very happy and it wasn't long before they got to a size to be repotted.  As you can see, when I tidied up the strawberry bed I also had a lot of runners to contend with that had planted themselves all over the place.  I should have kept more on top of things last year, but with one thing and another, the garden was somewhat neglected.  These are the smallest ones that I removed; the bed itself now has 24 plants ~ I started with 12 😄

Garden-ready plugs for my summer bedding this year: osteospermum Berries & Cream, and marigold Durango Select Mixed.  Although they are "garden-ready", I thought it would be better to grow them on in the greenhouse for a little while before planting them outside.

Sweet pepper Redskin, which came as a pack of three.  I've since given one of the plants to our neighbour.

The tomatoes are going from strength-to-strength, and I thought it was time to put in some bamboo canes.  

The peppers are growing more slowly but are making progress, unlike when I tried to grow them in our front porch.

Sweetcorn Swift, which should only grow to about 45cm (18").  I thought I'd try growing sweetcorn again, even though I was unsuccessful last year ~ despite cobs forming, I just ran out of summer.  I'm hoping that giving the plants a tad longer inside will move them on a little more quickly when I plant them outside.

Cucumber Mini Muncher.  This grows to 2m (80") but I'm afraid, like the tomatoes, they too will have to have their tops pinched out when they get to the ceiling of the greenhouse!

These three little geraniums, Apple Blossom, are from last year's summer bedding ~ they managed to survive the winter in the old wheelbarrow I planted them in!  I found them when I was clearing it out ready for this year's bedding, along with six argyranthemums which had also survived.  I didn't take photos of those, but brought them into the greenhouse for a little while, too.  They are now in pots in the garden and will be brought in for the winter this year 😉

I can't even begin to tell you how excited I've been with the growth of my precious little dahlias!  I've been playing "musical chairs" with them, moving those with shoots further along the staging until I felt confident that I could move them into larger pots and start putting them outside.....

.....albeit giving them some time in my makeshift coldframe first!  I put the pots right to the back, gradually moving them forward as I brought more outside until finally.....

.....I was brave enough to put them in the garden with no shelter at all 😊