Greenhouse regrets? Tips?

[JC03745]

If you have a green house- is there anything you wished you'd done differently? More/less staging, partitions, location, heating etc?

Bigger greenhouse (mine is 18 x 10)

I would probably have both short walls and at least one long wall brick or stone to the height of the staging - I don’t have much that needs the full height and I use the under staging area to store compost, pots etc. Brick or stone would act as some sort of heat reservoir. Alternative is to sink floor as we did in our last one - good especially for a small greenhouse as it gives more height at the eaves.

what I’m really pleased we did:

There are long canes suspended a few inches below the roof, running the length of the greenhouse. In winter, they support sheets of bubble wrap for insulation (just draped over the canes so quick to put up). In summer, they’re useful supports for tomatoes and particularly cucumbers.

Electricity. Not so much for heating, but for lighting and a radio.

Comfortable chair.

I prefer a wooden greenhouse but in reality a metal one lasts longer.

I like to put in shelf brackets to put decking boards on in the winter for storage and seed trays but that can be taken off in the summer for the strings for tomatoes to grow up. Which you can't do in a metal one.

I also used to take the staging off in the summer and put it back on once the tomatoes were out.

But a metal one usually has guttering already moulded in so that you can just pop a pipe on the end to drain water into a waterbutt.

So it is always swings and roundabouts.

For me, I'd want to be able to put a heat mat in it. I'd never place a greenhouse somewhere now that doesn't have access to electricity.

In the UK I'd want it in a sunny place in the winter, but slightly shaded in the summer. If I buy one here in France I'd probably not even be able to use it in the summer as it would get too hot, so I'd need to put shade cloth over it for half the year. I deliberately put my polytunnel up under a tree for that purpose and the tree shades the poly from around midday onwards all summer long.

To not have it in a place that the wind can blow the windows out [so no a wind tunnel type area] but if they do get blown out, that I can easily access all sides to safely remove shards and to replace the windows. This includes some sort of hardstanding so that I can get a secure ladder around all the sides.

Personally, I like to use slabs under the whole thing and to use pallet collars full of good quailty topsoil, double deep, to grow in. It keeps it clean, contained and I put the contents of my wormery on the surface in the autumn to add nutrition for the next year's crops.

And size wise, whatever you think you need, try and go bigger.

I have regretted only having two side vents.

And electricity-- I wish I had it. Happily it is big, very long with room for two chairs at the end. I have just spent a few hours clearing out the tomatoes so I can store the new delivery of winter firewood. Works well.

I've had two. A wooden one and a metal one. Wood rots and needs maintenance so definitely metal.
I wish I had had half brick at least on one side .
Electricity would be nice but not essential.
Good staging plus some shelving.

I like to put in shelf brackets to put decking boards on in the winter for storage and seed trays but that can be taken off in the summer for the strings for tomatoes to grow up. Which you can't do in a metal one. DH fixed shelf brackets in to our metal one. And you can fix strings on-a metal one

I know you can fix strings onto a metal one. But I don't particularly like drilling into metal to fix shelf brackets.

You don’t drill into metal. You can buy bolts that slot into the channels of the metal uprights and are held in place by the flanges.

Great - well done him!

I agree, buy a bigger one!

?? It's the standard way to fix stuff in a metal greenhouse.

MereDintofPandiculation
We have just bought a small second hand metal greenhouse. No staging or shelves yet. Could you link to the brackets/bolts/shelves you’d suggest for us to fit as we are total novices. Like the idea of not needing to drill in.

Here you are
Greenhouse bolts

I don't have any regrets about my greenhouse. I was going to buy a 6x8 size and DH said, get the biggest one we can fit into the available space so I went for the 8ftW x 12ftL and I've never regretted that decision. You can never have too much space in a greenhouse.

We had a large space available which is South facing with a group of high birches that attenuate the light in summer but don't block the light in winter when all the leaves have fallen. The downside is that I have quite a lot of leaves and small twigs to sweep up through the year but it's a small price to pay.

i have one long side free of any staging, where I put 3 grow bags (with bamboo canes across the roof supports so I can grow tomato plants up string in the summer) and along the long and narrow side I have staging and storage, with space underneath for a few vegetable racks from Wilco where I keep everything from secateurs to string and other bits and bobs, plus boxes and crates underneath out of the way, storing bulbs and dahlia tubers at various times of year.

I never stop learning about greenhouse gardening, it's a fascinating environment to nurture seeds, grow cuttings and protect young plants before hardening off by end May. I was pleased today to find a couple of small lavatera cuttings have taken root and now have lots of new leaves on the stems, so I'll plant them out in the Spring.

Worst thing about birches is not the leaves, it’s the scales of the fruiting catkins.

When I moved into my current house I was fortunate to come into a fully equipped big greenhouse with electricity, irrigation and water. To make full use of it would be a time-consuming commitment especially if you want to raise and pot on lot of seedlings.

My use of it is to grow tomatoes and few tender fruit/veg. I also over-winter tender plants in there. I have never heated the greenhouse.

I got rid of most of the staging as it meant I couldn't grow anything over abour 18 inches. I replaces with those really big storage boxes with holes drilled in them so I could grow big plants (actually some old recycling boxes my LA doesn't use now). My greenhouse is on hard-standing. I would honestly prefer it if it were built over earth so I could have had raised beds in it.

Have a serious think about what you want to get out of a greenhouse and design it around that.

I got rid of most of the staging as it meant I couldn't grow anything over about 18 inches Ah, that’s something else to think about - height to eaves. I have staging, but it’s at least 2ft to eaves, and another 18inches to roof at the front of the staging.

At my last house, we dropped the floor about 8 inches, but we had a low water table.

I put mine running east to west with no shade - I have found a way to control the heat with curtains etc but otherwise it bakes everything in sunny summer weather. And I'm in cloudy cold west Scotland. So try to arrange partial summer shade. Mine is open to the ground so I have a raised bed along one side. I also have electricity and water - used a watering system for when I was on holiday for 6 weeks last Spring.

You're not wrong there, Meredint!

I have a frameless glass greenhouse (by Pure Greenhouse).
Pros:

1. I love the way it looks - when I have opened the garden to the public it is one of the things everyone comments on. It is unusual and a thing of beauty.
2. It maximises light
3. Easy to clean
4. Very sturdy - no panels to get blown in. It’s in quite a windy location and cheap predecessors have been destroyed by wind.
5. Spiders have fewer corners to lurk. I’m an arachnophobe and have great difficulty with enclosed garden structures like sheds, greenhouses etc. I feel relatively ‘safe’ in mine!

Cons:

1. the vent is heavy, so I had to give up on an auto vent opener because it kept breaking. Had I known when I ordered the thing that I was condemning myself to manual opening and closing, it would have been a deal breaker. They may have come up with a solution now. I should probably check.
2. Glass staging was a stupid, impractical idea. Don’t fall for its looks. Expensive mistake.
3. It’s not big enough.

@VenusClapTrap I've never heard of a frameless greenhouse! I wish I'd know beforehand, because we have now ordered ours from a different brand! Oh well, thank you.

Never mind! I’m sure whatever you’ve ordered will delight you. Greenhouses are such a joy.

I have a perspex one. I would have preferred glass, but with young children who love to kick a ball around, the perspex was the safer option.

I think the size you need depends what you grow, vegetables probably require a bigger size but I mostly use mine for seed starting my flowers and 8x10 is perfect size for me. I've hundreds of autumn sown seedlings overwintering in there at the moment to get a head start on next year's garden.