Greenhouse v polytunnel?

[DitaVonCheese]

Last year DH and I had a greenhouse, off of Freecycle. We'd always wanted one and we loved it. We had it for one summer, then the wind took it and turned it into twisted mass of metal

Anyway, I'm now looking for a replacement on ebay and am wondering whether a polytunnel might be better - less susceptible to wind damage? Less likely to rain shards of sharpness on the DC? Is one better than the other? Please advise!

I would have thought that a polytunnel would be more susceptible to wind damage than a greenhouse, tbh. Did you have the greenhouse concreted down?

Generally, a polytunnel will be cheaper and is likely to be bigger (more affordable at a larger size IYKWIM). Cheap polytunnels aren't likely to be that robust. A greenhouse will be warmer in cold weather (glass is better at insulating than plastic), so eg better for propagating/growing on young plants earlier in the year.

I haven't had any experience with small garden size polytunnels, so can't really say much about them, hopefully someone else will be along who has one.

Oh, and of course with a polytunnel you need to budget to replace the plastic every so often, where as at least in theory an aluminium greenhouse will have an almost unlimited lifespan.

How often the plastic needs replacing will depend how well you put it up (tauter = longer life), but you could assume every 10 years roughly.

Thanks, that's helpful.

Greenhouse wasn't cemented down but I think that would actually have made it worse - it wasn't that the wind picked it up and took it away, more that it wrenched the roof up and down until the whole thing was a twisted mess. Sigh. I thought a polytunnel might be more flexible plus the one I've seen can be opened both ends so I thought that might spare it from the wind. Hmm.

There aree lots of different tunnel options out there, I think it would be u likely that one set of plastic would last 10 yrs tho.

Tbh it depends what you want to do, if you want to grow crops that need protection like tomatoes, peppers etc then a tunnel is the way to go but if you have things that need protection in the winter like pelargoniums, lemons etc you will need a greenhouse as you can put a low level heater in it. A greenhouse would be warmer earlier too if you wanted to propagate for the coming year.....

Hmm, is your site very, very windy? I'm really surprised that your greenhouse was trashed - unless I guess there were broken panes where the wind got in?

We're in west Wales by the coast, and can be really quite windy but I wouldn't anticipate my greenhouse being pulled to pieces by the wind. In fact we've used various greenhouses in different states of repair here and never had any problems other than the odd broken pane of glass.

Maggotmummy - I would have though 10 years was quite feasible for plastic unless they use very different covers for the small home tunnels? I'm thinking of the various tunnels I use - the most recently skinned was from at least 7 years ago & the plastic is still perfect, no holes/repairs. (They're 56 foot semi-commercial types, but pretty much the same structure just on a bigger scale.) Definitely worth having a roll of polytunnel repair tape to hand though even though it costs a small fortune so that you can fix any holes pdq!

If I could afford it and I was buying something for my garden, I think I'd choose a greenhouse over a polytunnel, just for flexibility. But if for example I could have a large tunnel but only teeny greenhouse - or a good quality sturdy tunnel but ultra cheapy greenhouse - then I'd go for the tunnel.

Unless, as maggotmummy says you're wanting to overwinter tender plants, then really the greenhouse is the only option. Spring propagation you can get away with just a tunnel if you don't mind bringing plants in and out of the house over night.

Thanks :) We do get a fair amount of wind here but it was during the gales last autumn. No broken panels but (no disrespect to the Freecycler who gifted it to us, we were very grateful) it wasn't the most sturdy of structures to start with (though only polycarbonate rather than glass so luckily not lethal). I think the wind took the door off first and after that it was all over ...

We do actually have a small glass propagator greenhouse thingy that we can use to start things early (though we then forget to water them and just cook/dry them to death) and hopefully by next spring we'll have a garden room that we can use for starting things inside as well ...

I'm liking the look of this: www.amazon.co.uk/Gardman-Polytunnel-Reinforced-Cover-Windows/dp/B0049SXO98/ref=sr_1_3?s=outdoors&ie=UTF8&qid=1346748597&sr=1-3

If you get a polytunnel make sure it is well fastened down, especially if it is windy. We woke up one morning to find ours on its roof in the corner of the garden making a bid for freedom over the garden fence after one particularly windy night!

Forgot to say it was the same size as the one you linked to

I think looking at the one you've linked to, I'd definitely consider how you're going to hold it down. I'm very unconvinced that 'guy ropes and pegs' are going to do that much good on a windy October night.

I suspect it won't also have that long a lifespan, tbh - so reasonably cheap but probably a fairly short run solution. But I imagine if you were looking for a similar sized greenhouse & wanting a sturdy one with safety glass, you'd be talking more like £350 or so rather than £70 . . .

Thanks for all the input. I think I'm going to abandon this completely and let DH decide rather than getting him one for his birthday. Might be we end up deciding more expensive greenhouse is better than replacing blownaway polytunnel every year!