CMs - a glass green house in garden?

[JennyPenny22]

Hi, we have HOPEFULLY found our new house that we hope to use for CM. But it has a glass greenhouse that looks a bit old so assuming not safetly glass or anything.

would I need to completly remove it? Or would safety film be OK? Although thats a LOT of safetly film! If I need to do the safety film, do I have to do it inside and out?

could you fence around it so that it is out of bounds

then safety film the sides that face the garden?

safety film should be out inside and out

might be better to take it down

Replace glass with plastic?

I think replacing it with plastic would be too expensive.

WIll try and get the landlord to take it down.

ANd fill in the pond

jennypenny I would defo have it taken down or you could cover it with plastic sheeting, that thick stuff is quite cheep and ofsted would love the mindees growing stuff, my mum covered hers for about £20. WRT the pond can you not drain it and fill it with sand, would make a smashing sand pit.

I did think about turning it into a sand pit actually! But it would need a LOT of sand, and a cover to go over it as we have a cat.

What plastic sheeting do you mean and where can I get it? We safety filmed a tiny door on the tv unit and it cost us about £15 with that safety film you get from Mothercare.
If we could do the whole greenhouse for £20 then I would do it. Would love to have the kids growing stuff - as the garden has vege patches as well!

Its called visqueen I think, you can get it from garden centres B & Q etc, comes on a big roll, in varying thicknesses. Is it metal frame or wood, if wood then you can nail it on, not sure how you would fix it onto a metal frame. Its basically a really thick clear plastic.
This kind of thing, only this is a bit posher than B&Q stuff.

www.tarpaulins-togo.co.uk/category-67/Clear-PVC-Tarpaulins.html

So do you put it on over the top of the glass? I am not sure if it is metal or wood, I think metal, I litterally saw it for 2 mins. If it doesn't stick to the glass, how does it make it safe? Sorry if I am being thick. If I didn't let the children go IN the greenhouse, I guess just child proofing the outside would be OK? They could still do all the potting and planting etc and I could just put them in the greenhouse for them?

Would love to be able to grow things properly, have our own little fruit and veg garden!

Hi,

We have a glass greenhouse in the garden and have covered it in safety film. I'm sorry I'm not going to be much help to you though as my dh did it and I think it is stuck on. It has been on for 5 years now and Ofsted were ok with it. Was expensive though. We do now have fencing around most of it and grow runner beans in front of the other part so not that accessible anyway. Have another inspection due this year - hope it will still be ok.

mum2akebk - thanks for the reply. Will bear all this in mind. We can ask them to remove it, IF we ask before we agree anything for the tenancy, so I need to make a decision really!

Would love it to stay, but not sure if its going to cause too much havoc?!

Mum took her glass out all together and put this on instead, she did it frame by frame and it looked just like glass, was waterproof and had the same hotness as glass. Hers was wood frame and they just pinned it on with nails. Too many ball games for glass stuff in mums garden . I suppose if its metal frame you could drape it over the frame and hold in place with tent peg type things. Seems a shame to lose it.

I think I am going to ask to keep it, and then see what we can do.

If it was fenced off, would that be OK with ofsted with the glass left how it is? The garden is big enough to litterallly divide it in half and it still be plenty big enough. If I did that though, I guess the children wouldn't even be allowed in there (that part of the garden I mean, not the greenhouse) even with close supervision while we planting something in the vegetable patches?

I would think that if you have that area fenced off so was secure from flying missiles and collisions from small people it should be ok. If you have a risk assessment in place I would still use it. Ofsted are leaning more towards taking reasonable risks atm instead of wrapping children in cotton wool. The insides of greenhouses tend to have shelving around the edges anyway for plants n stuff, so it would be unlikely that mindees would get that close to the glass inside. It would definately be something that the older mindees could enjoy.