SIX THINGS TO DO IN A TINY GREENHOUSE
MAKE A CHRISTMAS TERRARIUM London-based designer Isabelle Palmer (@thebalconygardener) specialises in packing plants into the tiniest of spaces – and she loves using micro greenhouses (see box below) as ersatz terrariums. She picks up cheap-as-chips starter plants from garden centres, majoring on Christmassy evergreens like dwarf conifers, ivy and wiry Muehlenbeckia complexa, plus winter-flowering violas. Then she gets creative.
Start with a layer of gravel in a deep tray the same size as the base of the greenhouse. Top with peat-free compost, then plant your miniature forest. Water in, then add moss, pieces of wood, pebbles, pinecones, or even little figurines to conjure up a Christmassy scene.
“Making these mini worlds is such a pretty thing to do,” says Isabelle. “And they don’t have to stay on the windowsill – you can move them onto your table for a dinner party, too.”
PLANT A WINTER HERB GARDEN Dig up mint, marjoram, French tarragon and chives to pot up and bring into the shelter of a balcony greenhouse and they’ll stay green weeks after those out in the open have shrunk back in the cold.
Germinate a sprinkle of coriander, chervil, parsley or Greek basil seeds sown direct into pots in a windowsill growhouse and they should be snippable by early spring, too.
START A MICROGREENS FARM You can grow your own winter salad even on balconies and windowsills: mini greenhouses take tray after tray of microgreens, sown every few weeks for a stream of nutrient-packed seedling veg to add to sandwiches, salads and stir-fries. Isabelle Palmer’s favourites are brilliant burgundy ‘Bull’s Blood’ beetroot, spicy radish and green kale.
“It’s the perfect way to use a little greenhouse with shelves,” she says. “I couldn’t believe how quick and easy it was.”
Most vegetables make good microgreens: try rocket, basil, chard, calabrese and even sunflowers for punchy flavours. Just avoid parsnips (they’re poisonous as seedlings) and buy organic to avoid artificial seed treatments.
Half fill shallow trays (takeaway trays work well) with peat-free compost and sow thickly on top. Cover with more compost, water, pop into the greenhouse and that really is it. Within as few as 10 days your little forest of greenery will be roughly 2in tall and ready to snip.
A BALCONY ALPINE HOUSE
You only really appreciate teeny-tiny alpine plants when you’re nose to nose with their dainty flowers and filigree foliage: not always practical (or easy on the knees) when they’re growing in the ground, but a delight when they’re at eye level in balcony greenhouses.
Mini alpine houses aren’t just for summer, though. Many alpines look good year round: weave a tapestry of colour from smoky-purple sempervivums threaded with delicate evergreen ferns such as Blechnum penna-marina or Adiantum aleuticum, just 2in tall and evergreen when sheltered. Then add a spangling of miniature winter flowers. In the cool shelter under glass, autumn stars like gentians (Gentiana sinoornata) flower into late autumn.
Silvery-leaved Moroccan daisy, Rhodanthemum hosmariense and diminutive Cyclamen coum bloom all winter, with elegant Iris reticulata and snowdrops for earliest spring.
Arrange choice specimens theatrically in matching ceramic containers or create mini gardens in shallow troughs of gritty compost.
OVERWINTER YOUR CHILLIES Instead of ditching your chilli plants at season’s end, convert them into ersatz houseplants. Smaller-fruited chillies like ‘NuMex Twilight’ and ferociously hot bird’s eye chillies are easiest to coax through low light levels, especially tucked inside a cosy mini greenhouse indoors.
Keep them on the dry side and don’t worry if they drop their leaves – they’re just hibernating. Once they stir again in spring, water and feed normally and they’ll bounce back to burn your mouth off for another year.
‘Making mini worlds is such a pretty thing to do – and you can place them anywhere’
CREATE MORE HOUSEPLANTS Greenhouses really earn their keep when you use them to make new plants for free. New houseplants can set you back the price of a round in the pub these days – so keep your cash in your pocket and use your mini greenhouse to take cuttings instead. Double down on your own favourites, or raid friends’ collections (the offer of a new plant in return usually does the trick).
All you need is a growing shoot snipped off just below a leaf joint to create new cheeseplants (Monstera deliciosa), rubber plants (Ficus elastica) and philodendrons.
A single leaf, picked with stalk attached, will give you baby African violets (Saintpaulia) or peperomias.
Sink into pots of gritty compost, water, then pop into your mini greenhouse to root.