plastic walk in greenhouse, green cover or clear, what is difference,

[vegelady]

I am thinking of buying the gardman plastic walkin greenhouse, mainly to sow vegetable/annual flower seeds now, to then grow tomatoes/cucumbers later in year and also as a means of actually getting into the garden out of the never ending rain, and escaping the house and using it to sow my seeds and sit in etc. The Gardman plastic walk in greenhouse seems to cover the options £50 at local garden centre, but has a green cover. I wonder does anyone have one of these and is it any good, and also my other blowaways (£15/jobs) have clear plastic covers and grow all my seeds perfectly. Will the green cover shade the greenhouse too much for seedlings, should i try to find a plastic greenhouse with clear cover. I would love permanent greenhouse but may be moving so dont want to invest in one yet but do grow all my own veg and seedlings in the house are eaten by cats, so need to move them all outside!

[Two_Sheds]

Will the green cover shade the greenhouse too much

No, it won't make any difference at all.

I have green shades on my (proper) gh, and a lot of my crops are under green mesh on the lotty. They all grow perfectly well.

[vegelady]

thank you, just what i wanted to hear - if someone has one would like to know what quality is like but otherwise will go for it. Could have been out side today cleaning my pots ready for sowing instead of sitting inside watching rain and sleet falling!

[WendyC]

Someone at my allotment put one of these up last year, probably around June. He didn't take the cover off and the whole thing has been wrecked by the winter winds. The cover is torn, the frame rusted and broken at the joints. Hopefully he'll get rid of it soon. Only mention it as it didn't seem very durable, but I would imagine your back garden is more sheltered than an allotment site.

[Thelma Sanders]

the green mesh covers last a couple of years before all the little plastic panes fall out and you end up with a self watering polytunnel!

[vegelady]

oh dear, i had better think again! my garden is quite sheltered but would prefer it to last more than 2 years however i have had my little blowaway's for longer as bring them inside for the winter so maybe they would survive if i just used them from march-november!

[zazen999]

Mine had slabs holding it down, ropes attached to the wooden raised bed frame, pegs and heavy stuff on the shelves. You can see it in the hedgerow. We now use the frame to make small cloches.

[WendyC]

Yep, that's about what the one I saw looked like!

[Two_Sheds]

Here's mine, what was lashed to the downpipe, and held down with a bag of compost on the bottom shelf

battered growhouse | Flickr - Photo Sharing!

and again:

blowaway grow house over again | Flickr - Photo Sharing!

[Alison]

I've got one that's not tied to anything (although has some bricks on the bottom shelf) which has been sat at the bottom of our garden for several years now. It's quite sheltered as it backs onto the shed but has been fine so it does depend on where you site them. I think I originally bought it about 10 years ago and did have to replace the cover once but that was because the zip had broken rather than the plastic ripped. I wouldn't risk it on the lottie though as it's more exposed, that and I use it for small pots when hardening off and I do that at home anyway. Am pretty sure that mine originally came from B&Q and was probably a Gardena (sp?) make.

[Shadylane]

We had one, on our exposed plot. It got wrecked in the autumn. The 'rents got us another one (we didn't ask for it but it seemed rude not to erect), it also got wrecked in the autumn. The first one got shrunk to half it's size (in height) and we plan to use it as a cloche. We got another year out of the 2nd one, on our less exposed plot, by patching it up, but the recent gales have separated it from its already tatty cover. If you take it down or take the cover off early autumn, you might get three, maybe four seasons out of it, depending on how sheltered you are.

Not really worth it for 50 quid but it might be the only option, if you can't get a stay put.

[Stonewaller]

Here's mine, what was lashed to the downpipe, and held down with a bag of compost on the bottom shelf

battered growhouse | Flickr - Photo Sharing!

and again:

blowaway grow house over again | Flickr - Photo Sharing!

Mine is fixed to the wall with vine eyes and bungees and touch wood it withstands everything, even though it is effectively in a windtunnel between the side of the house and the shed. Gusts strong enough to blow over the wheely bin haven't moved it at all since I fixed it up this way, originally it had bricks on the bottom shelf and that just wasn't good enough. This does mean it isn't in full sun year round so the original cover is now 3 years old, but it overwinters plants and grows on seedlings nicely.

The reason I didn't get a walk in greenhouse is because I couldn't work out how to anchor it securely to the wall! Although, having said that perhaps it might work if you banged in stakes at each corner and lashed the frame to them before putting the cover over the top? (I'm assuming the cover fits like it does on my blowaway - slides over the top and has velcro ties to go round the frame) And perhaps add a couple of crossbars...... It'd be a bit of work but still more temporary than a proper one.

[Rhona]

We've had the green Gardman walk in one - we were really pleased with it. It lasted three growing years before the little plastic squares flaked out. I'd suggest taping at the bits/hot spots where the cover rests on the metal poles - they gave way first and it's harder to tape once the damage starts. The zip broke on ours initially and Gardmann replaced the cover without any hassle. As I may have mentioned a couple of times ; we're about to get a proper greenhouse finally at home, but if we weren't, I'd probably go for another Gardman. We managed to grow lots in ours - enough tomatoes to have surplus for jars of passata, and quite a few peppers, aubergines and chillies. Though not last year, obviously...