Topic: Just thought I would share my lovely eBay bargain....

[Ruth Rocket]

For my allotment!
Quite excited As it was a bargain!
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Greenhouse-/320762443812?pt=UK_Home_Garden_Garden_Structures_Fencing_CV&hash=item4aaeee782^http://

[Aden Roller]

Looks good - well done you!

[Ruth Rocket]

It seemed like a bargain until it took 8 hours to dismantle and transport!  Ha! Now to put it up! 

[brown thumb]

did you think to mark adjacent pieces when you dis mantled it as that's whats been advised on here but well done hope you have many pleasureable hours using it if i had to choose between a shed or an green house the green house would win each time

[saddad]

I picked up a huge greenhouse for very few £'s... it had been damaged and wasn't square but we managed to get it back up without a major row!  ;D

[Ruth Rocket]

did you think to mark adjacent pieces when you dis mantled it as that's whats been advised on here but well done hope you have many pleasureable hours using it if i had to choose between a shed or an green house the green house would win each time

Now that would have made things too easy!  Of course I didn't think of that!  I am very much looking forward to growing all sorts of stuff in it!  And of course having a little base on the plot! 

[pansy potter]

At least you have all winter to erect it Ruth Rocket.

[lisaparkin]

We just bought a green house from someone, 8f x 6f.  Taking it down was a nightmare, we broke 5 panes of glass, but luckily they are cheap enough to replace.  Putting it up was hard too, making sure it was 'level and square', but it is up and is great, very pleased!!! ;D

[chriscross1966]

It seemed like a bargain until it took 8 hours to dismantle and transport!  Ha! Now to put it up! 

Pfft... it took me over two days to dismantle and transport the 20x10 I bought almost a year ago.... well worth having them though.... That is a bargain price and looks like one of the better constructed ones too... When I rebuilt mine I replaced approx half the glass with twinwall polycarb so that the neighbours don't have to worry about their grandkids breaking panes of glass (they've been playing in that garden longer than I've lived there)... It's worked very well... I'd thouroughly recommend the "high-qwuality, second-hand" route to anyone, if you can put a greenhouse up you can take one down.....

chrisc

[Ruth Rocket]

I picked up a huge greenhouse for very few £'s... it had been damaged and wasn't square but we managed to get it back up without a major row!  ;D

Now that is giving me a glimmer of hope that we can do it!

[Ruth Rocket]

We just bought a green house from someone, 8f x 6f.  Taking it down was a nightmare, we broke 5 panes of glass, but luckily they are cheap enough to replace.  Putting it up was hard too, making sure it was 'level and square', but it is up and is great, very pleased!!! ;D

Cool also!  A good second hand bargain is so much more satisfying than buying new!  We were hauling the paving stones that came with it across the allotment gardens before work today in the pouring down rain! Sounds rubbish but it was quite fun!

[Ruth Rocket]

Pansy I hope I won't need all that time!  I have quite a clever partner who is good at all that sort of thing!  Hopefully I can set him on the job!   If not who knows.....

Chrisc that is insanely big!  Have you got it full now?  I will need some tips from you! x

[Aden Roller]

New greenhouses on my allotment site are very often accompanied by some sort of mesh screen between them and the public footpath to reduce the chance of 'stray' stones and golf-balls causing damage.

It might be worth considering?  ;)

[Ruth Rocket]

New greenhouses on my allotment site are very often accompanied by some sort of mesh screen between them and the public footpath to reduce the chance of 'stray' stones and golf-balls causing damage.

It might be worth considering?  ;)

yep, awesome idea!  will go and check out the lay of the land! x

[chriscross1966]

Chrisc that is insanely big!  Have you got it full now?  I will need some tips from you! x

Yes, managed to construct it over a weekend with a pair of friends to get the frame up and then a week of evenings putting the glass/polycarb panes in... I still need to sort out auto-vents (I've got the bits and should do it soon...) I want to get power in there as it would make it much more useful in the winter if I could do my potting in there and I want to make some red/blue LED grow-lights to go chasing big onions... plus I'll be able to put all my propagation gear in there, 8 heated seed traysa and a decently sized soil-warming cable I'll use to make a big hotbed..

This year I grew about 30 tomato plants, 30 peppers, 5 aubergines and 14 chillis plus a couple of cucumbers and an unknown feral bean that I'll let set seed cos my dried beans have been bad this year and anything will be handy...complete failure on the aubergine front but everything else is good, I'm drowning in tomatoes....

chrisc

[Ruth Rocket]

That is quite inspirational, what would you recommend to plant next year, maybe easiest for a novice to grow?  Do you just grow veg? 

[sunloving]

Hi Rocket
Good luck with putting it up, my advise after building mine is have somthing to kick in frustration to stop you from hurting the frame by forcing it ;D

Use those plastic cable ties to hold the sides together rather than try to hold them upright whilst you fiddle for nuts and bolts.

What i found the hardest was deciding  what the frame peices looked like on the outside versus inside .

Expect it to be much more frustrating than you think and have a tea maker on standby.
x sunloving

[Mr Smith]

Thats a good buy, I had a similar bargain off e-bay which was a brand new Black glass TV table which retailed for over a £100.00, jammy bastard me paid £8.00 and it was only at the other end of town, :)

[chriscross1966]

That is quite inspirational, what would you recommend to plant next year, maybe easiest for a novice to grow?  Do you just grow veg? 

Yeah, I'm a veg only man.... all the decorative plants in the garden (I moved in 18 months ago) are dissappearing steadily, there's a couple of shrubs left that will be replaced with tayberries and loganberries this autumn.... the closest thign I've got to something pretty is a big trough of saffron crocuses...

If you can arrange the greenhouse to run east-west along it's long axis then along the northern wall you should get 8 tomato plants, plus a cucumber in one corner and a melon (or another cuke) in the other, then down the southern side you should manage two rows of peppers/chillis/aubergines, though I'd not bother with aubergines :D
Good tomato varieties: Sungold for cherries, they are insanely sweet and make a great entry drug to get kids eating veg, for a biggy if you want a big one look out for the Giant Spanish ones that are sold on ebay, the red is massive and gorgeous grilled whilst the yellow may not be so big (I've still had plenty over a pound this year though) but is possibly the best baked/roast/grilled tomato I've ever had. The plants are better behaved than my other favourite, Black Krim... it's a delicious tomato but given its erratic growth habits probably not for beginners :D. For something a bit more exotic then Black Cherry is lovely, less sweet than Sungold but more tomatoey, for a standard I'd sort of recommend Sub Arctic Plenty, but TBF there are loads of standards out there and they're all pretty good if grown indoors, it's their outdoor performance that is variable.

[Ruth Rocket]

Ah cool Thanks for all that info Chrisc, I will be buying seeds shortly and will go with your recommendations, we are half way there to getting it up now, glass has started going in :)  it is very useful to have some advice, definitely going to grow peppers, chlliies and cucumbers.  What do you have going on in yours in the winter?

Mr Smith, eBay is awesome both for buying and selling, good for plants as well x

Sunloving we are nearly there, just got the glass, have some buckets nearby to kick but so far so good x