Can I see inside your greenhouse please?

[SockFluffInTheBath]

I have my first greenhouse (finally)

It’s 8x6 and I’m thinking of a potting bench/table on the short end, racking along one long side, and maybe a small seat and pile of pots on the other long side. Not sure I’ve got stuck on one idea though, would anyone like to inspire me please?

I'm totally over excited about my greenhouse, just ordered some new shelves, so I'm happy to share the joy.
This is peak tomato, I think you need a chair, the chair is essential.
As soon as the shelves arrive, you'll be the first to know!

@GardenNinja
I don’t have a greenhouse and don’t have ambitions in that direction, but seeing your greenhouse makes me very happy.
It is a lovely greenhouse!

Wow, @GardenNinja! Your greenhouse is amazing! I am super jealous.

I don’t have one yet, but I have ordered an Elite Delta 5’3 x 4’4 which won’t be delivered until next April. The long lead in time is apparently due to the high demand since the first lockdown. Anyway, I’m very excited about my forthcoming little greenhouse and look forward to coming here for chats and advice.

@GardenNinja your greenhouse is lovely 🙂

@GardenNinja are they quarry tiles in your greenhouse? Totally gorgeous!! How are they laid? How does drainage work?

@GardenNinja peak tomato is amazing! I love the floor, I just have grey slabs. I was thinking of one of those outside rugs but I think I might be being a bit silly!

@AnnieSnap they told me 6 months for mine but it came in 2. I hope yours is quicker than expected, I nearly burst when mine arrived early!

[quote SockFluffInTheBath]@GardenNinja peak tomato is amazing! I love the floor, I just have grey slabs. I was thinking of one of those outside rugs but I think I might be being a bit silly![/quote]
If you’re working in your greenhouse, repotting, planting seeds etc, you’ll find an incredible amount of soil and plant debris ends on the floor. So be prepared to lift the rug before starting work. I hadn’t thought about it but two vital bits of equipment are a dustpan and brush, and a compost bin - mine’s a 70 year old white enamel bucket.

I also have an emergency umbrella in case it tips it down when I want to return to the house.

I have a slab floor - easy to sweep clean - hip height benches round three sides, except for a short length where I stand a big tub for my cucumbers, and a short stretch of half-shelf at head height. Under the benches I store pots and compost - in retrospect it would have been better to have stone walls to hip height and glass above.

Running along the length of the ceiling I have some stout canes. In winter I drape over them sheets of bubble wrap for insulation, and in summer they’re useful as plant supports.

An automatic opener for a roof window is useful - even in winter, sunshine can rapidly raise the temperature.

You’ll need nearby water. Even collecting from the greenhouse roof gives a useful amount.

An electric light is useful for late evening visits.

Morning everyone! I woke up to all your kind messages and you've already made my day.

It's my pottering day today, so I intend to fill this thread because I've lurked and benefited so much from stuff recently.

Our greenhouse is 10 by 6, it was at least 15 years old when we were given it and moved it in 2018.
It has been brilliant and I don't think I would ever be without one now. It's given real focus to the garden, in busy times or bad weather it's just a place away from the house to sit for ten minutes. My gardening skills are getting better and obviously it's been awesome these last couple if summers.

It's hard to find pictures of working, normal
greenhouses and round here people have nothing or enormous polytunnels. I'll find a few pictures so you can see how it's evolved.

I'd love to other people's options, not Instagram perfection.

@MereDintofPandiculation thank you, you’re a mine of very useful information! I’m going to start a list.

I did think the rug might be silly

@MereDintofPandiculation the great thing about a greenhouse & potting shed is it evolves to suit you and things that no longer fit anywhere else - enamel bucket, old chisel for sowing seed, chipped crockery, find a useful purpose.

We have a concrete cattle trough to collect water and dip watering cans in, much quicker than a waterbutt. I also have a large paella dish for standing pots in for a quick soak.

Originally we stuck it up, long bench made from bench ends from a skip. Realised for lots of potting, I mostly worked out side on another table but need a small table inside for little jobs.

Built a proper potting shed out of 'things that were going to come in handy', with a door into the greenhouse. Raised the greenhouse up on sleepers, put down a proper concrete path, later quarry tiled. The tiles are great for damping down in the summer and water just drains into the two beds. It keeps evolving!

You definitely need a place for the ugly stuff - spare bags of compost, bundles of supports, stuff that might come in handy, ugly pots you can't quite throw away. We've got cheap paving slabs outside, nearby but not in direct sight.

We have a concrete cattle trough to collect water and dip watering cans in, much quicker than a waterbutt You can dip in a waterbutt too

I also have a large paella dish for standing pots in for a quick soak. I have a tap just outside, which has a trug under it so I can dip watering cans - I use that for rather drastic quick soaks!
But your paella dish reminds me that my compost bucket in the kitchen is my old aluminium jam pan, made redundant by moving to an induction hob when our 30 year old cooker finally packed up. Its new function fits it perfectly.

What a lovely thread ☺️

I love.mt greenhouses but am stuck for what to use it for in winter (first winter with it now)

So this is mine, nothing to see really! It’s been up for about 2 wks and DH has gone off to get some wood to make staging and a potting bench for me. I have a quite possibly impossibly romanticised image in my head of how it will end up but we’ll see. Work in progress!

[quote SockFluffInTheBath]@AnnieSnap they told me 6 months for mine but it came in 2. I hope yours is quicker than expected, I nearly burst when mine arrived early![/quote]
That’s good news. I’d like to get going in early Spring. I do have a Swallow wooden Jay, which is like a hybrid potting shed/greenhouse windows on one side including one side of the roof. It’s restrictive though, can’t grow from the floor, only a small area with enough light. It will be great to add the Elite.

@GardenNinja Oh yes, we all need a place for the ugly stuff and the pots we can’t throw out 👍

It was funny looking back at pictures - the ebb & flow over the seasons, you will achieve your vision @SockFluffInTheBath but only for fleeting moments.
I recently revisited Anne Swithinbanks greenhouse book. She talks about 'staging' in the sense of arranging it in a pleasing manner. My new shelves are for space to keep things purely in the greenhouse for pleasure, not for hurriedly potting on or as a holding bay to the great outdoors.

Loving seeing everyone's pictures, such an important space in our lives.

(Bounces in excitedly)

My 8x10 greenhouse arrives next month (24th at the latest, but delivered to the fitter on 9th November, so we've to have the base ready by that date as his dates often shift when people are/aren't ready on time.)

Frame is in place ready for concrete laying tomorrow.

(Now just need the weather to stay mild until it's up, or my conservatory will become a greenhouse again for things that need to be protected.

(Makes note of emergency umbrella and dustpan & brush. I feel I will need a radio/bluetooth speaker of some sort too.)

@GardenNinja you must tell us about the dinosaur?!! I would love a greenhouse but am getting a garden office instead, apparently. Am also worried about my two foolhardy children-are there any particularly child-proof options anyone can recommend? Am trying to be as low plastic as possible but I'm worried at the idea of so much glass

Am also worried about my two foolhardy children-are there any particularly child-proof options anyone can recommend? Mothercare used to sell a clear film to cover large panes of glass and stop them shattering. Presumably it's still available somewhere.

My father's greenhouse is plastic not glass, Still standing 15 years later. Not as transparent as glass, but warmer in winter. Don't know the specific type of plastic, basically twin wall polycarbonate I think, with something added so it doesn't degrade as much in sunlight. You could replace the lower panels with that, perhaps keep glass in the roof, unless your worry is stray footballs in which case I'd go for all plastic.

Sorry, both these options are plastic one way or the other, but I'm not sure there is another alternative. Apart from a fence/ dense planting round to stop children running/falling in to it, and chicken wire over the whole thing, held a couple of inches above the surface, to try to defend against footballs.

Following. Buying a house with a greenhouse and am very excited so be able to use it rather than filling windowsills with pots covered by plastic bags!

@13luckyblackcats mine has toughened glass. It will still break, but it’s not that evil horticultural glass that splinters like something from a horror film.

I have ordered racking and a table to work at. DH started making wooden stuff (didn’t really want wood but he was trying to help I suppose, but it was chunky and really oppressive. Cue huge domestic- I may have called it rhino bunk beds- but now it’s gone and he’s using the wood for racking in his shed…) all due this week in time for bringing in the tender bits. Very excited knowing my spring growing won’t be squeezed into the porch windowsills!