The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Growing => Gardens => Topic started by: Rosemary on September 04, 2011, 02:08:22 pm
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We have a nice Robinsons 10' x 8' greenhouse. Unfortunately, it's in the wrong place - it's under a tree, so it was fine in spring when there were no leaves, but now it's really shaded. We thought we'd move it round into the vegetable garden and replace it with a same-sized shed for storing tools and the like.
Dan and I were discussing it at lunchtime. We're putting a polytunnel in the vegetable garden this winter. During the discussion, we started to wonder if we needed to keep the greenhouse at all or if we could sell it and use the money to help pay for the shed. We couldn't decide.
So, questions for all you gardeners - if we have a polytunnel, do we need to keep the greenhouse? Is there anything that we could do in the greenhouse that can't be done in the polytunnel?
Thanks.
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Keep the greenhouse
Or one day you will find a use for one and say "I wish we still had that greenhouse"
Remember ..... A Greenhouse is for Life not just for xmas... :bunny:
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Not an expert gardener, in fact a pretty rubbish one - so here's a silly question - is a polytunnel not just a bigger greenhouse? Only difference being you can't heat it teh same way (I seem to remember somewhere on here someone said you can heat them but also can't remember how)
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I have both but one is inside the other - obviously the greenhouse inside nthe tunnel. Ours is only 6'x8' and takes up about half of one bay of the 7x14metre tunnel (sorry about mixing metric and imperial....) I use the greenhouse for bringing on seedlings once they have outgrown the propagator in the bedroom, then I use it for chillies, peppers, aubergines and tender things like that. We are at 1000', windy and cold, so a greenhouse outside here would just explode, or implode or otherwise disintegrate in the first big wind.
However, it does take up more space than it warrants and I think that I could manage with cold frames in the tunnel, if I didn't already have the greenhouse. I have tried using the greenhouse to overwinter tender plants but the temp in the tunnel is about 1 degree higher than outside, and inside the greenhouse about another degree higher, at night, which means that it's still way below zero, whereas in the day, in the summer, the temp can soar to well over 100F.
Whether or not you sell the greenhouse could depend on how much you would get for it, how big your tunnel will be and if you grow lots of plants which need a greenhouse rather than a tunnel. I am a hoarder so would never get rid of it 8)
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We have both, and I use my greenhouses for all my propagation in the spring, something I certainly couldnt do in the polytunnel as its always full of overwintering crops.
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Greenhouses are less humid than polytunnels. we have a poly tunnel and i want a greenhouse for things like Chillies and aubergines. Melons and courgettes prefer humidity but the leaves tend to mildew in a polytunnel. Depends of course on how good your ventilation is in the polytunnel. Mine is long and thin so more humid than a wider shorter one. My advice would be to keep it.
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Yep, I think we've decided to keep it, but move it to another site, away from the tree.
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Not quite tongue in cheek but....
If the tree is nothing special why not ring bark the tree by cutting oput a ring of bark 3 inches wide around the base and treating the lower cut with SBK stump killer. the tree wil die but be sound for a year or so
That way you don't have to move the green house yet or perhaps not at all and you could if you carefully cut the tree to bits at a later date have some fire wood.
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Not quite tongue in cheek but....
If the tree is nothing special why not ring bark the tree by cutting oput a ring of bark 3 inches wide around the base and treating the lower cut with SBK stump killer. the tree wil die but be sound for a year or so
A good question!
It's a mature lime and is covered in bees for about a week when it flowers. It's more precious than the greenhouse! :)
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Lovely honey if you keep bees close by Dan
If you have never moved a green house before may I offer.......
.Watch out when you take out the panes of glass , mark then with a sticky label or a chinagraph pencil so you know where they should go back .
Glass age hardens ( oxidizes ) & can shatter under very little stress. usually horticultural glass is 3mm thick so if you can use your freecycle and get a few spares in
If you need to cut the class use a brand new wheeled glass cutter or a quality diamond one and paint the glass to be cut along the line with clean paraffin , use a wooden guide firmly held in place to follow the line..
On the cutting area make the padding under the class firm such as two thicknesses of 19 mm ply well supported & covered in three thickness of old flat blanket . Break a scored line over a 3 mm thick strip of wood that goes the full length of the score line.
When re-sitng the frame or making the base if your having one use a 3,4 5 triangle to get the corners square and measure the diagonals to check they are equal .
Remember Pythagoras theorem from your school days /. The sum of the square of two adjacent sides of qa right angled will equal the square of the hypotenuse .. so the square root of the the two sides should equal the hypotenuse or in reality the diagonals of the base .
Don't do what the orifices who recently errected my £2,300 green house did , they failed to check their two mtr spirit level for true , did all the form work with it & cast a nice base slab 6 inches thick and then errected or should I say tried to erect the green house.
It was 1 1/2 inches out on one side over only 12 feet
Mark all the spars and channels in the place they are , once you have the glass off but before you dismanltle .. for I noticed that the jigsaw puzzle of my green house was slightly different across the back and front ends ...the errectors did not and tried to rebuild it on the new repaired improved slab with amusing results .
I'd also recommend going for a couple of bags of new nuts , bolts and spring clips and a set of all the sealing strips seals , for the aluminium nuts and bolds are frequently fused and will shear . the spring clips are only good for ten years or so . The seals will have formed flats and as a result may not hold the glass in a stress free position .
" Two Wests " on line are a good place to get any bits for green houses
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I have heard that tomatoes do better in a green house, I have a pollytunnel that is vented at both ends, I find this works better. I use it all year round. Its 4 years old now and still in good condition but at some point in the future I expect to have to renew the cover. :)
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You are quite right Sabrina, tomatoes ripen more quickly in a greenhouse than a polytunnel, it's something to do with the differences in light penetration between glass and plastic.
Regarding the greenhouse,, I'd keep it. If you're not going to use it for growing, you could always use it to speed up the seasoning process for logs if you have a wood burner. That was on another thread somewhere in the forum. (A good idea I thought.)
Anyway, greenhouses last much longer than polytunnels and can handle a fair amount of snow in the winter not to mention strong winds. My last polytunnel got wrecked 2 years ago with the bad weather, mind you, it was a cheap one!