aIBU to spend £8K on a greenhouse

[BarrelOfOtters2]

Small garden - you can see the greenhouse very easily from the house - it's the main view. So I've priced up a wooden greenhouse. £8K including shipping (I live on an Island) and installation.

I could get a very cheap aluminium, or a nicer aluminium for less.

I think the wooden one will look better - could potentially be a garden room for someone if we move...

I'm trying to justify it really.

I'm weirdly invested in your post 😁
You're 53, I assume worked all your life and you want to treat yourself to something expensive that you're going to use, enjoy and look at, I say go for it op.
Post a pic when it's installed

I really think it does depends where you are… it’s “pretty” but wouldn’t last a winter where I am unless tucked neatly between stone walls and houses and then you’d not get the benefit.

I think you’d be better getting it built locally by a company who understand the environment.

@BarrelOfOtters2

I have wondered about a cream or light green aluminium one….or modern black one that would match the extension but clash with the old garage it’ll be next to.

Mine is the Rhino in blue grass, with the finials - I think it looks pretty, and all just seems so well made.

(Also 53 and likes pottering in her greenhouse LOL.)

Another vote for Rhino. Mine is 15 years old, looks great, weathered many storms, and managed with very little maintenance. Not getting a wooden one could allow you to get a bigger one - more plants and space for a comfy chair

Sorry Barrel, my post (read back) sounded quite blunt. I think that you buy whatever makes you happiest. I too have spent a fortune planting seeds only, too often, to be disappointed in yields (I'm never going to be self sufficient!).
Think of it as an investment in your health and wellbeing and I wish you a successful growing season.

I love the fact there's 50 something year old women invested in a stranger's greenhouse!

Don't get me wrong I like the coloured aluminium ones.... but it's going up against a very oldy worldy looking garage.

It's cedar and the company reckons if you don't mind it weathering it's a paint every couple of years with a protective coat and it should last 20 years.

The back garden is very sheltered and the greenhouse is well tucked away between the end of the garage and a very sturdy fence. But extraordinarily visible from the house. I will be planting some screening in front of it.

@Nemesia blunt is good!

Another 50 something allotment holder here!

If you can afford it why not? Your plans for it sound lovely. I would if I had the money.

On a much smaller scale I bought a potting shed for over £1000 for my allotment last year (to replace one made of old doors which was collapsing) . Thats a lot of money for me but I viewed it as an investment for my retirement. I love it. A year on, I still get a little leap in my heart when I walk down the lane and see the roof peeking over the hedges.
My son has the same shed in our garden - known as the manshed. Its better than mine as it has electricity. When he leaves home I will reclaim it and turn it into a summer house. And I will be a two shed pensioner !

If you love it, can afford it and will use it, go for it I say.

My budget greenhouse is green aluminium. I have plastic panels for DGC safety but they do fall out in high winds. Wind has also damaged the door mechanism and window so a more sturdy one would be nice. Maybe one day.

@BarrelOfOtters2 if it's very visible could you choose one that is very beautiful and make a feature of it?

I'm thinking set on lovely York stone slabs, with a similar path to it.. a lovely bench outside.. some fab pots inside and out.

I'd love to make a feature of it. It'll have a little patio in front of it with 2 chairs that get the morning sun. With room for old pots and works in progress behind it so they'll be hidden rather in full sight as they are at the moment.

It'll also hide the oil tank - big bonus.

@Ted27 I've got an allotment and I remember thinking the £600 I spent to replace a second hand shed that disappeared in a gale was an awful lot of money for a shed. But it's still there and looking great 10 years later.

Husband has suggested we could use the £8K to look at converting half the garage into a greenhouse .... but I can't envisage how that would work.

alernative aluminium

I like the look of the powder coated aluminium ones. My rhino is so robust (I just have a basic metal coloured one and envy the fancy finialed ones) and other greenhouses locally have been wrecked in the storms we seem to have every year now.
You could get the shades, nice matching shelving etc.
Mine has a nice chair and small table in it for sitting after I potter. It's a lovely place to be.

If you can afford it and it will bring you joy, go for it.

I’m about to buy something for £2k that I could get an functional equivalent of for half the price, but for once in my life I have the money and I want the nice looking one so I’m getting it. I spend my life getting the ‘sensible’ or ‘affordable’ or ‘practical’ options - well not today!

(First summer for mine) I definitely need to get myself a nice chair ...

My cat took over the greenhouse and nice chair at the last house. He loved it in there.

I want beautiful - not functional.

Taking on board the comments about no maintenance for the powder coated aluminium.

@Williamshatnershorses

We need a pic!

[quote Ted27]@Williamshatnershorses

We need a pic![/quote]
Sadly it’s just a laptop 🤣. I’m getting a Macbook when I could get an equivalently memory/processor windows version for around or even less than half the price. But the MacBook is what I want so, for once, thats exactly what I’m having!

(Please no-one come on and burst my bubble and recommend a better laptop. Thank you)

@Williamshatnershorses

Good for you, I hope you gets lots of enjoyment from it

I would love a green house but we don't have a wall to put one against, only glass or fences.

@LuluBlakey1

you don’t need a wall for a greenhouse, a fence is fine. On my allotment site there are greenhouses all over the place. Mine is next to a hedge, my two neighbours have greenhouses which in front of a couple of trees.
I’m personally very jealous of a colleague at work whose partner put their greenhouse on wheels. In the winter it lives in a corner where its protected from the wind, in the spring/summer they move it to a sunnier spot in the garden.

We spent £800 on a shed last year that we couldn't afford the year before so I saved and saved. (all relative as I don't have disposable income). I love my shed. It makes me happy every day and I'm glad I didn't skimp and get the cheap one.

[quote Ted27]@LuluBlakey1

you don’t need a wall for a greenhouse, a fence is fine. On my allotment site there are greenhouses all over the place. Mine is next to a hedge, my two neighbours have greenhouses which in front of a couple of trees.
I’m personally very jealous of a colleague at work whose partner put their greenhouse on wheels. In the winter it lives in a corner where its protected from the wind, in the spring/summer they move it to a sunnier spot in the garden.[/quote]
But what happens if the fence blows over as they seem to more often now?

I'm coveting a frameless one. beautiful and fiendishly expensive

www.puregreenhouse.co.uk/greenhouses/

I do like your wooden one too

Get a Polycrub instead!