I don’t have a greenhouse in the garden, and can’t have one installed until after the studio building work is completed. So in the meantime, I need to improvise.

The proteas need protection during the winter months, so I have used a mammoth plant jacket to cover them this winter. It is one that is usually used for protecting trees and is made of a high quality 100 gsm horticultural fleece. I have adapted it to attach to the geodesic dome frame and it has performed relatively well in the strong winds and icy weather we have had recently. It isn’t an elegant solution, but it has worked, and the proteas seem to have all survived the winter.

Finding somewhere to grow seeds in a protective environment is another challenge. I have a couple of Elho grow tables outside my kitchen door, but they don’t hold nearly enough plants. And I don’t have the room on window sills indoors to grow things either. At the weekend I came across an interesting solution to this in the Higgledy Garden blog. They use a collection of 64L clear plastic boxes from the Really Useful Box Company to create mini greenhouses to grow seeds.

The boxes keep the plants protected and are very portable when needed, both indoors and outdoors. I will be trying out this brilliant solution for my vegetable seeds this year. It is important that the boxes can stack on top of each other with the lid either on or off (instead of collapsing inside each other), and that the plastic is clear. Benjamin Higgledy drills holes in the bottom for drainage, but otherwise they are good to go.

I have ordered 6 x 64L boxes from Robert Dyas and they arrive tomorrow, ready for the seed planting season. I have all my seeds ready to go and will keep you posted on progress.