Page 40 - Simply Veg 3.21

Cleaned glass Washing greenhouse
Project Greenhouse
Greenhouse moved to back garden
to the rear of the greenhouse. That way, the air flow should be quite good, and we have the option to have the louvre and door open if we need to, to draw the air through.
Next up on the list of preparations was washing the panes of glass. We sorted ourselves a little conveyor belt system where we washed the panes with warm soapy water and then rinsed them down with clean cold water before carefully stacking them
up again in a separate pile. It was surprising how dirty the panes of glass were! We didn’t realise until we started washing them, but they were so much cleaner when we’d finished.
Before we could glaze the greenhouse, we put some 5mm glazing foam back on the aluminium frame to cushion the glass once in place. After we’d finished erecting the greenhouse, we also created a framework
to hold up the soil and compost in the beds we’re going to set up in there. Finally, we filled the beds in the greenhouse with some topsoil.
We can now grow vegetables direct in the beds, or most likely, in containers that we stand on top of the soil in the beds. We’ll make sure that the pots have holes in the bottom though, both for drainage, and also so the plants can send their roots out of the pots and into the soil beds beneath. And as you can imagine, it wasn’t long before the greenhouse was filling up. We’ll hopefully give you an update on how we get on with the greenhouse over the summer months in the next edition of SV magazine!
EMILY PLUMB FNVS
We moved into our first home together
in September 2020, and so the garden
is still a work in progress. However, until we’ve decided what we’d like to do with it, we’ve been growing vegetables largely in containers for 2021 so they can easily be moved around as and when we decide on different bits and pieces. That being said, one thing we have managed to get set
up is a little greenhouse to help with our propagating and also lengthen the growing season a bit where we can!
We were very lucky that a family friend was getting rid of a 6’ x 8’ greenhouse,
and they asked us if we could make use of it! Therefore, first step was to de-glaze the greenhouse and move it from where it was located to our house. Luckily, it was only just down the road, so we were able to carry the aluminium frame once the glass had been taken out down the road to our driveway. We’re not sure what the neighbours thought about how we like to spend our Sunday afternoons!
Although the greenhouse was in pretty good condition, it needed a bit of TLC before we could start using it again. At the very least, we needed to move it from the driveway at the front of the house to the garden at the back!
First up, we worked out where we were going to put it in the garden. Then we needed to fix the base in place, concreting the posts in at each corner.
Whilst the concrete was drying, we also gave the greenhouse frame a bit of a clean
off, as it had lots of moss and dirt on it. We started off with buckets with warm soapy water in and a stiff brush. However, some of the moss was more persistent than we would’ve liked. Luckily, our kind neighbour took pity on us and lent us her jet washer. Apart from being super fun to use, it did a great job on the tough moss that had been growing in the frame for years!
The next job was to remove the old glazing foam that was stuck to the aluminium frame. This has got a bit old and dried out, so we wanted to replace it when we re-glazed the greenhouse. We found that it was quite simple to scrape the glazing foam off with a paint scraper.
After this, we were ready to move the greenhouse to its position in the back garden. Although we have side access, it isn’t wide enough for a greenhouse! Therefore, we had to dismantle it in part so that we could carry it down the side of the house. We also dug over the initial beds we intend to have round three sides of the greenhouse.
We also moved the louvre that was in
the side of the greenhouse. Where it was,
it was going to be up against the wall we have running down the side of the garden. Therefore, we thought it wouldn’t be as effective for air flow purposes which is
what it’s designed for. Therefore, after a bit of WD40 and some gentle tapping with a hammer to loosen the mechanisms, we had a working louvre again! Then it was quite simple to undo the nuts and bolts which were attaching it to the frame and moved it
Greenhouse base
Completed greenhouse
Greenhouse filling up
40 Simply Vegetables