Greenhouse Recommendations….

[Flyflyfly]

Morning morning.

if you have a greenhouse and you love it, where is it from? I’m after a decent sized one, but am struggling as reviews are all mixed. Wilkos looked alright, but the reviews ain’t the best…any ideas?

I think every gardener would say that if you’ll make use of a greenhouse, get a good one which won’t blow down in the first winter storm. There are lots of decent ones so look for a bargain during sales. Read the reviews, make a list of good manufacturers then get a bargain if you can.

Mine’s a Robinsons, and still in perfect condition after 30 years. But prices are eye watering now.

My mum has an aluminium one, it's been up 45 years & other than some glass being replaced looks as good now as it did when it was new.

It depends what you are after in terms of size, shape of your garden, whether it will be against a wall, what kind of base you want, metal or timber, if timber, hardwood or softwood...can you buy a standard size or do you need something bespoke etc... I have a bespoke timber greenhouse which I love.

What’s the maintenance like?

I have never done any maintenance on my aluminium one.

www.wickes.co.uk/Palram-Canopia-6-x-8ft-Harmony-Aluminium-Apex-Greenhouse-with-Clear-Polycarbonate-Panels/p/137394

this is the one I’ve decided for, although I think it’s cheaper at Argos currently!

I have a Robinson's which is 12 years old and doing fine.
But it gets full sun all day and in a good summer gets very hot. If I had my time again I'd have a bigger polytunnel.
Polytunnels round here have a more diffuse light than a greenhouse. And being bigger have a more stable temperature.

Mine is 12x10

@Flyflyfly ,
I've got a Palram, I would describe it as cheap and cheerful. It does it's job ok, but can get battered in relatively low winds. Some tips:

Definitely place it on a concrete base of some kind and make sure it's screwed down, it doesn't come (well mine didn't) with any anchor bolts so you'll have to get those.
The weakest points are the door and the roof vent. I've attached extra latches to mine to stop the wind catching them - they have a habit of flying away!

You'll be surprised how much water you can collect from the gutters, but because the eaves are low a standard water butt may not fit underneath with enough room to use the tap to fill a watering can.

I've had mine 4 years now and it's still here!

My Robinsons is a little bigger than yours but not much. It has 5 roof windows and double doors which I leave wide open. It gets hot, but not too hot for the plants, or the cats. But I am in Yorkshire.

I have a Halls Popular one and am really pleased with it after having a crappy plastic one in the past...

I have this one - www.greenhousestores.co.uk/6x6-Halls-Popular-Greenhouse-Horticultural-Glass.htm
The polycarbonate one I had previously blew away in a storm!

We have a bit of a posh greenhouse, it was a gift from a great grandparent on the death of another great grandparent
It's a cedar Gabriel Ash Hyde Hall , we have a brick and concrete base with a path. We have automatic vents and an automatic watering system (solar powered) to make using it easier. We have 2 level staging down one side for seedlings.
We also have a water butt from the greenhouse guttering which is really helpful and collects way more water than you think it would.
Our watering system wasn't expensive (from Amazon) but makes such a difference in summer especially if you ever need to go away.

I have this one which I like. Though if I had space I’d have got a bigger one, but I didn’t have the money/space to extend the concrete base it’s on. I’ve added guttering and a water butt.
It does get super hot in direct sun (at the very end of a north facing garden with no real shade on it) but I’ve added a shade net.

I had a Palram Harmony greenhouse and my tomatoes loved it!
it was noisy during storms, but it never flew away or lost any of the panels, probably because I set heavy concrete pavers on the bottom inside of the frame.
The one drawback was that it was not very tall, although I did manage to find a water butt that fitted underneath the gutters.

I bought a Hercules in 2019 the Blenheim. It’s 12x8 and fantastic. I’ve recently moved and I left it. Wouldn’t hesitate to buy another. It’s bolted to the ground as where I loved was prone to strong winds as it was made for adverse winds. Double doors, no lip so you can wheel the narrow straight it and looked pretty too. Can’t recommend it highly enough

Ours is an Alton 8x10 cedar wood. It’s 6 years old. I’d second getting double doors without a lip, easy to take a wheelbarrow in.
Also make sure it’s got toughened glass for safety.

I have a frameless greenhouse from Pure. I love the look of it, but realise it’s not everyone’s taste. Being frameless maximises the light, and there’s nowhere for spiders to attach webs - I know that’s a bit pathetic but it’s important to me.

I’ve had it for several years now, and whilst the greenhouse itself is great, the auto vent mechanism never worked properly so I gave up on that and replaced it with a manual lever, which is really annoying. I’d also recommend giving the glass staging a swerve as it shows every water mark, is not sturdy enough and was an expensive mistake.