Plastic walk-in greenhouse excitement!!!

[eskymo]

Hi all

I've been wanting a proper greenhouse for two years, ever since we moved into to Fife from the city. But as I'm always skint and can't fork out a couple of hundred quid I've opted for one of these plastic walk-in greenhouse instead, until I can afford the real thing! See attached image.

I'm a bit worried though as our garden, along with all the others along the street, can turn into quite a wind tunnel later on in the year, so I'm hoping I can find a good way of pinning it down to keep it in place.

I've got two old 4 tier growhouses in the garden at the moment which need taking down as the covers are completely warped and they don't zip up anymore and I've managed to keep them in place by tying them to the metal railing fence. Hopefully I can do the same with this, although I think I will need to weigh the other side down with paving slabs or something.

has anyone got any ideas?
has anyone got one of these greenhouses and is able to offer advice?

I'm hoping the sun will shine tomorrow so I can go out and flatten the ground and prepare the area where the greenhouse is going to be erected.

Cheers

E

[eskymo]

p.s. - I got this thing at poundstretcher for £35!!!

I've seen them advertised elsewhere for around £50-£60 so think I got myself quite a bargain. If you decide to buy one from poundstretcher though, I would advise opening the box in the shop and checking the contents, as mine had bits missing - well it had 4 rods with holes when there should have been 6 and 14 rods without holes when there should have been 12 - so a bit of a mix up there. But I cannot be bothered packing the thing up again and lugging it all the way back to Edinburgh on the train as it's pretty heavy and I've figured out that I can work around the mixup.

[dragonz]

use the staging from the old 4 tier ones as extra shelving with the legs hooked over the base on the new one is what I do to keep mine in place

[dragonz]

and you might not be able to put it together without the correct rods its a bit fidley when you have all the rods, I got mine from homebase last year for £35, reduced from £50, the reduction had ended about a month before but someone hadnt taken down the sign so they had to sell it to me for the lower price, plus I earned 10% in spend and save vouchers so I got £3.50 in coupons the following month , I've also just go a polly tunnel of similar size from lidi for £29.99

[andrewo]

I have used smaller versions of this, they are excellent if well tied down, make sure in the height of summer and the heat that it is well ventilated, open up the front and treat it like a polytunnel, if not, condensation builds up fast and you end up with some terrible problems.

[sandersj89]

I also lay bricks along the flap of the cover that you pin to the ground with pegs. The weight of the bricks helps hold it down.

Jerry

[andrewo]

You certainly need to pin it down or it will take off, mine did, made a lovely kite as it disappeared over the canal.

[nick the grief]

If you don't want to use bricks, see if you can find some scaffold pole or you could use paving slabs to make a path around the outside. That should help.

[eskymo]

I've got some small flat square bricks that I found in a skip, but not sure I have enough to go all the way round. I also have paving slabs, but they're now getting used for a path elsewhere. It's been pissing it down all down so I've not had a chance to go out and see what's available.

I need to level the ground first, and was thinking that maybe I could sink the structure in the ground slightly and bury the base to help hold it in place. I need to get it out of the box and set it up first to see if that would work.

[andrewo]

You can also punch holes through the bottom and use pegs, simple fleece ones tied onto the greenhouse with twine will do it.

[blossom]

Does it have roaps tied on? I have some big brick/stones which I have tied mine to which seems to work well. I have another one on one of the shelves until I get more heavy pots in there to. It hasn't flown away, yet.

[andrewo]

If it didn't have ropes tied on (and they normally don't) it doesn't take long to puncture some holes through and tie some rope to the frame and tent peg it to the ground or tie to stones/bricks, annoying fat children that you have sedated with mogadon, inactive elderly members of the family, anything that stays stationary.

[Little Dig]

Mine was tied to concrete slabs on three sides, the fourth side being next to the gable end of the house (warmth at night etc.) The wind blew it over and snapped all the platic brackets on one side, so when the March winds die down it;s out with the evo-stik.

[eskymo]

my oh my - I'm a bit worried about using it now!

I've not been able to go out and start preparing the ground and install the greenhouse as it's been ppissing it down with rain for days...looking forward to some sunshine that might come a long tomorrow.

[andrewo]

Remember that these are really light weight structures and when the wind gets into the canopy, it will rip them up, especially strong winds. the best bet is to weigh down the base or even sink the legs in concrete.