Around the garden

The tub is grey. Just a supermarket storage box with holes cut in the top. There is silver reflective sheet around it to reduce the heating effect of the sunshine through the window in the warmer months. Ideally it could be taken off during the winter to improve the inner temperature but I don't think the effect would be that great anyway. Inside the tub there is water with dissolved nutrient up to a level about a couple of inches below the top (probably about 9 litres in this one). The plants are in basket pots so the roots grow down into the nutrient water. There is an air pump to the left which feeds air to air stones (like in a fish tank) which bubble up air disolving it into the water. The plants would die with root rot without it as they would drown. Roots need oxygen, even in soil. A point to remember in soggy gardens.

Ideally the lamp would be left on for 10 hours or so a day. but I don't like leaving it on when out. The pump does not need to be on all the time, I am tending to have it on while the lamp is on. The water loses oxygen more when the water is hotter. That is the main reason for using the reflective shield. I have found no problem with the nutrient water with algae, but it does not get the sun. Before I started using the lamp I was getting some mould growth on the plants but it has cleared.There is a little on the top of the plant growng medium in the basket pot but this seems lessened as I use the lamp.

I checked my broad beans in the greenhouse this morning. Here are a couple of different planters with photos taken during the cold snap and how they were today. Broad beans seem pretty hardy and they look to be doing well :