A greenhouse newbie - break it down for me?!

[CatMattress]

I might be getting a greenhouse for the first time ever! Asked around on fb and there's an 8x4 one with a couple of smashed panes that DP reckons he can reconfigure into a lean-to style to fit down the south-facing side return of our house, against the house. (Im even happier to be re-cycling/re-using)

If we get it I can build some shelves/benches out of the pallets we have and I'm looking at a smart/Bluetooth thermometer and humidity sensor to monitor it. What else might I need? A heater?

This summer I'd like to grow tomatoes and cucumbers, DP wants to have a go at chillies. What else would work well? We're SE/home counties so relatively mild and I want this for food. Maybe bell peppers? What else?

Over winter we'll try and drag out the carrot season, maybe winter potatoes and greens...?

What do I need to know/have forgotten?!

Water.
If you are going to be away for a few days, you really need a way to get your plants watered, especially in summer.

It will sit handily in between the water butt and the pastor tap so that should be simple enough to rig!

Pastor tap? outdoor tap. Pfft.

Ventilation is essential. Fit an automatic opener to the roof window and replace a side pane of glass with a louvre window. The door will need to be open all day in summer and cats find the soil very acceptable for a toilet so make a barrier across the doorway. A trellis with mesh over it is ideal. We grow tomatoes and cucs directly in the soil inside the greenhouse. This helps the tomatoes as the skins split if watering is irregular.

I always wondered why my tomatoes did that! Useful tip - thank you!

I use solar power irrigation systems in my greenhouses - Irrigatia make the ones I use which run from the water butt but if you have a tap nearby there are loads of options available. Very regular watering makes a massive difference to tomato quality in my experience.

I’m sure you will love this!

i have a little table and chair (recycled from the donation skip at the tip) just by my greenhouse door. I find it very useful for doing stuff outside when it’s too warm, potting, cutting etc. and I pop the chair half in and half out the door in spring for the most excellent tea and book spot (was 25c today, I had a vest top on!)

i grow mini cucumbers, two types of tomato,
chilli, and I grow lot of perennial hardy things from seed which need to stay in for a year before going out (coreposis, lupins, verbena, echinacea, rudbeckia) plus annuals like snapdragon, salvia, etc.

I also use it for overwintering. It’s been a brutal winter but I’ve managed to keep some delicate patio roses, fuschias, geraniums etc alive.

enjoy!

Ooh - lots of new toys!
DP is rolling his eyes at me now. Uh oh!

Some great tips. Tha l you. I've been playing the hokey cokey with my pot plants all winter, taking ghrmw in and out of the kitchen. I so very nearly got my geraniums through, but I was ill the first night of that most recent frost, didn't get them in and... curtains. Sad. They were just starting to flower.

I presume it would be good for getting a headstart on lettuces.and strawberries?

Some people paint the glass with a whitewash in the summer to stop it getting too hot inside
You could grow melons and aubergines too

If it’s south facing it’s going to need really good automatic ventilation or you’ll bake everything. I struggle to keep mine cool in summer and that’s with automatically opening vents and roof openings.

Hah - my 11 year old is obsessed with the idea of growing melons he'll be thrilled.

And although it's south facing its along the side of the house with a fence in front of it which will limit the amount of sun I think... ah well, DP is very handy and a techno whizz so I'm sure I can bribe him to set something up for me. Especially if it means he can grow super scoville chillies!

Your shelves/benches need to be removable/height-adjustable to grow most plants otherwise you'll be seriously restricting the height that they can get to, especially tomatoes and cucumbers. Ideally they should be pots on the floor (not grow bags) so if we get a hot spell like last year you can move them out of the greenhouse so they don't cook.
Don't overcrowd it, this will just put the plants under stress and will allow disease and pests to easily move about.
If you are growing annuals, I don't think you'll need much heating. At this time of year when they are just seedlings it's easy enough to either cover them with fleece or move them in trays in doors if a frost is predicted.

I'm getting a greenhouse too. I'm in the east coast of Scotland though so I don't think it will be so hot! I can't wait.

Me too - so watching with interest. Planning on tomatoes, aubergine, melon, some squash type thing, chilli and courgette. Looking at 10 x 8.

If your buying a new largish green house, it helps to have double doors. Then you can take a wheelbarrow through them. Handy for compost moving.

Collecting the greenhouse on Saturday and have arranged with our window fitters to use his trade discount to replace the smashed glass panes. Yay. It's going to be a bit of a tight squeeze down the aide of the house, but we don't use it as a thoroughfare much anyway. Do we need to do anything special for the floor? If we just plonk it down it'll have a concrete floor with drainage (See pic).

I also bought a teeny baby plastic greenhouse today to start germinating seeds in so there's not too much pressure on DP to get the proper one set up. Just need to order a few seeds (tomatoes, carrots, lettuces) and we're away! Bought big bags of compost today. Wilkos have a good deal on.

Would love to see photos of your greenhouses - new and established - will be fun to watch them grow as the season progresses. I'll take a photo when we have it set up, but this is it in its current locale.

Anyone else in the home counties?

My greenhouse was a donated and moved. We've raised it on sleepers and laid, then tiled the concrete. The chair is non negotiable. The aluminium shelves were a great investment last year. It's the best. It's evolved over the last five years but I'm pretty happy with it now.

Ooh, that's lovely @GardenWeedWitch . The tiles look so pretty!

I ordered my seeds yesterday from the Real Seed Company who I've used before, way back when I had an allotment. As well as the salad veg I also fell for DS's blandishments and bought melon seeds: minnesota midgets. I just couldn't resist the name and description!

I'm getting really excited about my garden now. We moved in September so this is my first year. I got a gap of raspberry canes donated from someone in my local allotment group and they've started leafing now, plus I asked about strawberries to see if they're was anywhere local to but some and got offered some free runners! Facebook has been very good to me.

And today we go and (hopefully) collect my new greenhouse!

Anyone else got any gardening planned? It is, admittedly, less appealing than last weekend, due to the temperature change.

Woo. Greenhouse disassembled and brought back to base.

God knows when it'll get reassembled mind...

Home Wi-Fi reaches my greenhouse. It was a godsend last March/April when I had covid. With a cup of tea, a kindle, a garden journal and a lot of tissue paper I could watch my seeds germinate and Mumsnet in the warmth.

When we put in my greenhouse 30 years ago (pre sensible mobile phones and pre internet) we made sure it had electricity and was linked to the house phone network. For some years I had a solar radio in there - an ideal use for it.

You need some sounds, I have a little blue tooth speaker that links to what ever I've downloaded on my mobile.

Did you manage to get the glass to your place intact?

I find this company very useful for fittings, spares, everything really.
I'm not connected in any way but I like to imagine they are all past retirement age wearing brown button up coats.
www.twowests.co.uk/collections/fixings-accessories

Amazingly we got every single pane of glass back unbroken! Bloody love an estate car and my anal retentive very careful and methodical DP who packed it all up so carefully. I've told him I'll add it to the tally of things he's got me for my upcoming 'big' birthday, especially since he had to angle grind some of the fixings out of the ground in order to lift the base!

The greenhouse will be against the exterior wall of the kitchen and we should be able to get power out easily enough, otherwise solar power will do, but the WiFi will definitely reach.