It’s a big investment, but you’ll reap the rewards if you sow and grow under glass, says our gardening expert
Every gardener dreams of one day owning a greenhouse. It is an inevitable path that starts with a bit of fleece and the miracles of growth that happen with just a few extra degrees of heat, and ends in lusting after luxury bespoke greenhouses online and fantasising about pineapples. Growing under protection changes the game: seedlings grow strong and robust in a way that never happens on a windowsill. You can extend the season and ensure heat-loving plants still bake in less-than-perfect weather.
For me, this has been a fantasy for years. I have built lean-to structures, fashioned from skip finds, old windows and used fish tanks, but they have all fallen apart. This year, as I trawled through online sales of fancy glasshouses, I did a cost-per-wear analysis. I realise that such metrics are usually reserved for handbags and expensive jackets, but my world is floated by happy green things and my windowsills are starting to buckle and warp from years of seedlings grown on them. If I bought this handsome, tall cold frame, it would cost just under £20 a week. Put another way, every tomato I eat this year will cost me a pound – but oh, how wonderful they will taste. A single plant can produce up to 200 fruits, so from five plants I could harvest 1,000 tomatoes.
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