Greenhouse advice

[Sappidis]

So, my girlfriend's thinking of getting a blow away greenhouse.

I'm kinda jel cause it's bigger than mine 😞

Any thoughts? Advantages , Disadvantagess, recommendations? Will probably only you it out Feb march time to avoid bad weather.

She wants to grow:
Tomato plants. (might ask you guys for variety advice at some point because due to limited space shell need high yielding types...)
Couple of chilli plants
Salads/lettuce
Garlic/spring onion
Strawberries

[Scarlet]

They aren't called "blow aways" for nothing! It needs to be pegged down well, breeze blocks attached, rope it to the house, shed, hedge and nearest tree

Disadvantages - there isn't any ventilation, things can burn and wilt in the heat in hours, the condensation can cause problems too.

If you only want to grow....
Garlic - my garlic will be planted outside in October. Harvested end of June.they don't need a greenhouse.
..a couple of chilli plants - grow them on your kitchen windowsill?
Strawberries - grow well outside
Tomatoes - best started indoors and moved out the end of May - you could grow some cherry varieties that will ripen well outdoors? Or start looking for a second hand GH/polycarbonate thing!
Salads - I grow mine outside during the summer..I'm not sure the plastic GH willgive you more return than a sunny windowsil will during the early season and in Summer lettuce is best outside.

Personally I would save your money and buy a cheap GH or start looking for a secondhand one on ebay/fr33cycle, preloved etc.
I'm sure several grapes will disagree with me but you've got several months to start looking through those ads....

[Baldy]

Blow aways... I bought a little one from Wilkos for £2.50 more for the staging that came with it.
If you can get one for next to nothing, if you're in a sheltered position, if you really secure it... I'd still say go for the second hand proper GH

[Jay-ell]

Scarlet has some very good points.

There are a couple of things you can do to reinforce it but it it will still be at risk to strong winds.

I put one up three years ago and last time I checked it was still up (no longer have that plot )

Firstly I reinforced all the plastic connectors as these break easily - I used self amalgamating SOS pipe repair tape which made a tight rubber ring around them.

Next is to hammer in posts next to each upright and tape thw frame to them with duct tape.

After that I tied para cord across each diagonal to brace them a bit.

The cover was buried and then had bricks on top of the soil. Planters were put on the bricks.

That blowaway was in a sheltered garden so the winds didn't get massively strong but still got up a fair bit.

The zips on the doors tend to break. Make sure you face the door away from the wind, last year I didn't and it did catch it like a kite after the zip went.

The ventilation is big problem. Never sorted that out. I kept the ground soaked and in the humid atmosphere the cucumbers romped away.

If you only have £30 and have the other stuff to hand then it can be an option but this year I got a greenhouse.

[1Bee]

Jay-ell likes the belt, braces and super-atomic--hyper-mega-armageddon-glue approach....

[Cadalot]

Min lasted two years - It was up against my shed the sides were not long enough to bury but I did fill milk bottles with sand and cable tie them to the uprights at each staging level in each corner, he zip lasted a year and the skin two before the wind got it and moved it to my neighbours plot sand filled milk bottles and all.

Main problem with it was ventilation and condensation inside

Managed to pick up a second hand polycarbonate greenhouse after that. keep an eye on B&Q as they flog off there's at the end of season or beginning of next for £50 - £60 rather than have the boxes weather outside for too long

[Bigmallly]

Managed to pick up a second hand polycarbonate greenhouse after that. keep an eye on B&Q as they flog off there's at the end of season or beginning of next for £50 - £60 rather than have the boxes weather outside for too long

............and less if ya really lucky:

http://www.growfruitandveg.co.uk/gra...eap_81369.html

[Scarlet]

I will own up to having one of the same shelf type plastic grow houses. The shelves are great in the GH. I start off seeds in it that don't need the heat of the prop. I had three house bricks on the bottom shelf of mine....it is very upsetting to see half your seedlings thrown upside down and chucked all over the lawn!

[ESBkevin]

I would make a decent cold frame with old/recycled windows and pallet boards. It will be more useful most of the time and last a lot longer for no cost (hinges?). I do own a small blow away, but I use it inside the proper greenhouse as staging with an extra layer of protection from the cover in the winter months. i would not be comfortable with a walk in style blow away. Would a poly tunnel be a better alternative I wonder?

[Sappidis]

To be honest it's only really to enclose an area so that her dogs aren't able to get to it. Once again it's not her garden so getting a large greenhouse is fairly out of the question.

She is currently doing a couple of ornamental chillies and stuff on the windowsill but I'm thinking of getting her something like a tabasco for the greenhouse as it's higher yield.

Are there any plans around here to build your own "cold frame" / greenhouse? Would be a much better option but my DIY experience is fairly non existent.


Thanks for the help by the way guys, "proper" ardening really isn't my area of expertise. Notifications weren't working so sorry for the late reply :S

[Cadalot]

Cold Frame

Step one find an old window or a number of old windows ideally with frame
Step two - build a box gravel boards, decking or scaffold boards to the size of the window or windows with a bit of a slope on top so the rain runs off

Job done

My Step 3 was to add some old air brick ventilation covers after drilling a series of holes on either end.

and Step 4 was to paint the timber with preservative.

Never did add hinges, but have timber block spacers and battens in side for raising asn lowering battens for the seeds to stand on so I can lower the plants as they grow.

[Jay-ell]

Jay-ell likes the belt, braces and super-atomic--hyper-mega-armageddon-glue approach....

I forgot to mention that I installed anti-launch kinetic buffering rods as well.

Basically I tied some canes to the frame so they sit between the cover and the staging - that way when the wind blew any flapping of the cover didn't launch my seed trays and plant pots. Basic but it worked.

[Scarlet]

If you built a coldframe for a chilli plant it would need to be fairly tall...what's wrong with growing the Tabasco plant indoors?

[Sheffsteel]

Hello Sapidis,

I bought the exact same greenhouse as yours about 5 years ago and filled it with a few chillie plants and 2 tomato plants and kept it in a fairly sheltered area of the garden.

Initially it was a great buy and the plants progressed well during Spring and early Summer.

However much about gardening is trial and error, learning what works for you.

During really windy days the greenhouse blew onto its side. I managed to rescue the plants inside as they were small so I weighed it down with really heavy weights, there was no way the wind would blow it away now. However eventually the plastic started showing rips and wind damage when facing 40 mph gusts.

Another issue was, in very hot weather it was almost impossible to keep the heat down.
Some days I took the whole plastic cover off because folding up the door wasn't sufficient enough.

Although the chillies were fine the tomato plants grew too tall for the greenhouse of that size, by the end of July as had to leave the plastic cover off permanently.

Overall I was a little disappointed because it didn't meet my expectations however for growing plants from April to July then it does the job but needs daily monitoring, forever rolling the door up and down several times a day.

Therefore I saved up some money and the following year bought a 12 foot by 10 foot high eaves new Alton greenhouse, which I'm pleased to say has met expectations.