Greenhouses
Winter 2010 - It has become clear over the last year that we could do with more space under cover to grow food. We have long looked at polytunnels in their many forms but feel that our neighbours have enough to put up with without asking them if they mind looking at a polytunnel all day. So we decided that a long thin greenhouse would be the way to go. These don't seem to be available off the shelf, and we wanted to incorporate our own 6 x 4 greenhouse.
January 2011 - As I said in my blog of the 4th January 2011, our neighbour was giving up his greenhouse and kindly offered it to us. As he is only a few hundred yards down the road we lifted the greenhouse off it's slab base and walked down the road carrying the empty frame. The glass we moved separately. It then prompty snowed so the greenhouse was anchored to the lawn to wait for better weather.
Site clearing
January/February 2011 - The area as you can see needed the over grown shrubs removed. Sadly, most of these had been killed during the winter of 2009/10. Then the shrubs that the greenhouses will back on to needed pruned before the weeds needed cleared.
Once the ground was cleared I double dug the area removing deep roots and incorporating grit and compost to improve drainage.
Once the ground was cleared I double dug the area removing deep roots and incorporating grit and compost to improve drainage.
Double digging
The ground where the greenhouses are to go was double dug during March to remove more weeds, incorporate grit and compost. As we have ahd lots of rain the clay soil is heave and so it is a slow job, gradually however, we got there.
Leveling off
Once the ground had been dug and all this extra material was added, what had been a bit of a slope had been exagerated. We had realised from the start we would need to put in some sort of edging as a retaining wall.
When we looked at it we realised that sleepers would do the job well. We already had some in the garden, but ordered a further two, FSC, cut in two to be manageable. I must admit we concreted these in, not very Eco friendly but about our only option. Once they were in place we could then level the ground off properly before putting the bases in place.
When we looked at it we realised that sleepers would do the job well. We already had some in the garden, but ordered a further two, FSC, cut in two to be manageable. I must admit we concreted these in, not very Eco friendly but about our only option. Once they were in place we could then level the ground off properly before putting the bases in place.
Initial joining together
Before putting the greenhouses on the site, I joined them together on the lawn. I am really glad I did this as they proved a little stubborn when eventually in place, but I knew they fitted together so I manipulate the frames to get them to fit.
Finally placing
The two greenhouse bases were not the same width so we alligned them roughly and then put the greenhouses on their respective bases. By then attaching the two greenhouse frames together the whole thing became one structure. We then started moving about the glazing. Our original greenhouse had polycarbonate glazing, the new one horticultural glass. Despite there being at least 20 if not 30 years between the manufacture of the greenhouses, and by different manufacturers the polycarbonate and glass fitted both greenhouses. What was even more surprising was we needed to use glass from a third greenhouse and this fitted aswell!
Our polyglass house
Finally finished and ready for planting. We are reusing food containers as water butts, these will be pemanently plumbed in once we have slabs to stand them on. I added this one to catch some of the rain that we had at the start of May. I will also plant up round it so there is no soil exposure, this should limit the amount of weeding needing done!
