Greenhouse recommendations and tips

[HasaDigaEebowai]

I am finally looking to get a greenhouse for the garden and am struggling with the various options. I've spent way too long on pinterest looking at beautiful handmade buildings with georgian panes etc and now the prettiness factor is becoming as important as the growing space.

Does anyone have any recommendations? Should I go for wood or aluminium? What are the essentials (I'm thinking automatic roof vent openers) Are blinds essential?

Budget is about £5k (so I really need to stop looking at the £15k models...)

I had an aluminium one - coated black. It suited the house. It was quite a clean modern style, no twiddly bits. I loved it. Planted lots of stuff around it so you saw the plants not the greenhouse.

The automatic vents were brilliant. Didn't need blinds due to shading by trees but you can usually fit them afterwards anyway if you find you need them.

elite-greenhouses.co.uk/the-edge-600/

Wood looks lovely, but I think the taking care of it wouldn't happen in reality for me.

There was a similar thread recently, so I’ll repeat myself😁. We have an Alton Cedar one, with automatic vents, double sliding doors so you can get a wheel barrow in and safety glass. They sent a rep out to advise on the siting and base and it was erected by them, it has been brilliant. The wood does not warp and has a long guarantee ( can’t remember off hand). It came with a potting bench and shelving.
We lay green nylon screening over one side of the roof in the summer.
Get the larges you can afford and site. You’ll soon fill it.

The essentials are

1. Size
2. Automatic vents
3. low down louvres or the willingness to keep the doors open in summer to get a good draught through

Nice to have but can be added later
Electricity for lights, heat, radio
Nearby water (maybe a water butt taking the water from the roof of the greenhouse)
A comfy chair

If I had money to spare, I would spend it on getting a larger greenhouse rather than on specially fitted benches.

Thanks everyone

If I had money to spare, I would spend it on getting a larger greenhouse rather than on specially fitted benches.

This is interesting, I have to admit I am getting sucked in by the beauty of the building/matching benches, shelves etc aspect which obviously sends the price skyrocketing (I made the massive mistake of looking at the national trust ones). I have been looking at roughly 10 x 12 size but we have five acres and so could have any size really within reason.

I showed some to DH last night and whilst he is a little skeptical about whether I need one in the first place having managed for 20 years without one I think I could stretch him slightly on the budget since he is concerned that the garden still looks pretty.

Any thoughts on the Rhinos?

I have a Robertsons aluminium. One thing no one else ever seems to complain about is it gets too hot. It has no shading so on hot summer days it is baking hot- it has auto vents but I have to keep the door wide open. This means you need to be around alot (changeable British weather) to open and close doors, water often. I do put a green mesh over the roof on the sun side but still it is hot. Tomatoes are ok but it limits what you can grow and I wish I had a polytunnel - neighbours have one which gets morning and early afternoon sun so gets heated up, then shade in the afternoon. So no baking. Polytunnels are usually much bigger.
So maybe position for early sun but shade later in the afternoon.
Perhaps have a look at where good gardeners have their greenhouses positioned.
One other point is to get a very flat base, possibly poured concrete is best.

We've got a wooden one which is a sort of half potting shed half greenhouse. We have the greenhouse side facing NE which means lots of sun in the morning and shade for the rest of the day but it's still pretty bright in there. It has two vented roof panels and a casement window at the end opposite the door. I leave the door open for ventilation as much as possible and the window all the time (the latter not just for ventilation but so that cats don't get trapped in there - they curl up and hide inside). It has a built in wooden floor which means its cosy (I have a chair in there and often just sit there with a cuppa) but you have to be careful with watering, also the vents leak sometimes in stormy winter weather, I have to keep seed trays on the floor under them to catch drips. I also can't use growbags on the floor. I love it but I didn't think of the floor issues.

Automatic vents and polycarbonate instead of glass are my two essentials. Polycarbonate keeps the greenhouse warmer in winter and stops scorching in summer.

Get the biggest one you can afford because when you start using it you'll think it's too small, mine is 10 x 8 and I think it's tiny when full of plants. Also consider where you put it that you get a good wi-fi signal. I spent many hours on warm but windy spring days sitting in my greenhouse surfing the net.

Interesting Esspee - and they're so much cheaper!! (but sold out!)

Hmm ok perhaps I need to think about the siting more. I could put it at the side of the house (east facing) next to the vegetable garden but that would limit me in terms of size since I've used most of that area and it doesn't get much direct sun at all due to the shadow of the house. I had planned to put it with the long side facing west (for pleasant evening pottering) but maybe that means it might get too hot in the afternoon.

Sounds like extra ventilation is a good plan. Fortunately I work from home and so Im around to open doors etc and we live in woodland away from other people so security isn't an issue at all.

I had planned on a tiled floor. Not sure whether that's a good idea or not.

Thoughts on this one if I can stretch the budget? greenhouse

Wifi is a good point, I like listening to podcasts in mine. It doesn't have electricity but is about 20m from the back door so we have put a BT disc (wifi extender) just inside the back door which does the job nicely.

Unfortunately we can barely get wifi in parts of the house let alone the garden..

Do people with wooden ones find the maintenance an issue? We have so many jobs to do around the house that adding another doesn't seem like the best plan.

We are looking at rhino ones at the min, they have amazing reviews. There is a Facebook group Rhino Gardeners Forum which is customers who offer advice and might be worth a look.

Cedar greenhouses need no maintenance, the cedar turns a silvery colour. Blends in beautifully with the garden. We’ve had our for 4 years still as good as new. Also you can put hooks up Inside for hanging baskets for tomatoes.

you've got 5 acres - lucky you! I think you need to decide whether your greenhouse is mainly a garden ornament or somewhere to grow plants that appreciate warmth. With your space I'd go for a poly tunnel for the plants which you could easily extend over the years, and something else to sit out in, like a summer house.

I like the look of dwarf wall ones, especially if they have the look as the house.

Bigger the better. Mine was in a very shaded bit of the garden which worked well for starting stuff off and nothing got scorched but it was sheltered from the wind which was the real issue.

Loved sitting in it on a rainy day...

Re flooring, ours is on large, common concrete slabs. Stability is important so lay a stable Foundation slab that is larger than the greenhouse area.

Some people like an Earth bed inside the greenhouse, but that still means the edge of the greenhouse has to be on a stable foundation.

My rhino one is hopefully arriving today.
Weirdly, it was the hanging basket rail that was the deciding factor.
Their customer service has been fab so far.

I have a raise bed and earth floor (with weed suppressant cover in the middle bit. I would think paving or similar would get hotter in summer and colder in winter.

I have a Robinsons which we put in when we bought the house 30 years ago. I always think of it as 10 x 14, but I think when I measured it the other day it's actually 12 x 16. (It's still too small) It's got 6 roof vents, and a partition 4ft from the door, so in winter I have a warm part (which I insulate with bubble wrap) and a cooler part - which is useful when getting plants used to the idea that they;ll have to go out and battle the elements. From about end May I leave the double door side open until the autumn.

It's standing on a big concrete slab, but the centre has paving slabs, meaning there's a channel about an inch deep round the edge - useful if I water over-enthusiastically.

If I were building again, I'd have a half wall - apart from one place where I have an 18 inch tub I don't use the under-bench space except for storage, and a wall would be better insulated. About half of it has just a bench at about 2ft, which gives room for tall plants to stand and then be trained across the roof; the rest has an additional half shelf at eye height so I can have two layers of smaller plants.

I heat it by electricity and have a light in there for evening visits. I leave the centre clear to give space for two cane armchairs - it's a nice place to sit in cooler weather. But it gets very crowded at different times of year - when I've started off the seeds, but the overwintering plants haven't gone out; when my seedlings have been potted on but aren't ready to go out; when the over wintering plants are coming back in but the place is still full of tomato plants.

The other useful thing is to keep an umbrella in there in case you get caught by a summer storm. Saves phoning the family to come out and rescue you.

Weirdly, it was the hanging basket rail that was the deciding factor. Interesting. I've never thought twice about hanging baskets from any of the internal rails of my Robinsons. I'd not thought about the need for a special rail.

Just had a look at the robinsons but it comes out as literally double the cost of the comparable rhino . Shame because I liked the idea of the sectioning

Just had a look at the robinsons but it comes out as literally double the cost of the comparable rhino Yeah, it boggles me how we had the confidence to buy it all those years ago, I can only imagine it paled into insignificance compared with what we were paying for the house. But it's been worth it for us, 30 years and still as sturdy as the day we put it up.