The next phase in the garden master plan was to get a greenhouse. We have been saving up money from gifts that family gave us over the last year or two and we had enough this year.
We opted for an entry level “Hall’s Popular 8×6″ from The Greenhouse People. They seemed to really make themselves available in pre-sales - even to the point of having an MSN contact on their website who was able to speak with me about any queries I had.
After placing the order they took a deposit and within a couple of days a pack had arrived in the post confirming the order and gave us lots of tips on tools and other things we would need come the big day. The advertised lead time was 5-7 weeks or something like that so we were a bit gutted because that would have taken us well into March and we could have ordered earlier.
However, about 2 weeks later we had a letter saying that they wanted to deliver the following week and gave us various ways of confirming and even offered that they could phone us say an hour before delivery if we wanted to be in as they used their own drivers.
On Monday 18th I worked from home and the greenhouse arrived as promised, nicely flat-packed. On Saturday we set about putting the thing up.
Assembling the steel base was a doddle. The aluminium frame was a bit more of a faff as some of the diagrams would have benefited from accompanying photographs however we got through it without any issues.
The real pain in the arse was that before you could put in any glass you had to put on a rubber seal to the vertical sides of the glass frame. This sounds easy but it wasn’t - it took two of us well over an hour and would have taken 3 times that if Vicky’s dad hadn’t suggested that we use washing up liquid to lubricate the frame.
We called it a day after that as it had taken us 7 hours to get to the point of putting the glass in. On Sunday we set to putting the panes in. The clip system was a bit worrying for me - it doesn’t feel terribly secure to me and the pre-arrival instructions gave tips about stopping panes falling out in the wind as though that was a common fault. Hmmm… time will tell eh?!
The roof vent was a tight fit but we think that was because the frame wasn’t 100% level so we decided to put it on the opposite side where it was all a bit straighter. Then Vicky’s dad did wonders with his drill to fix it into the ground and Bob’s your uncle - we have a greenhouse.
We now have pots which I’ve drilled herb seeds into - dill, parsley, coriander, mint, basil etc. Next weekend I will plant up lettuces and a few other bits and hopefully we will be all set for Spring. Later this year we want to grow tomatoes, chillis, peppers and more in the greenhouse plus we will start pretty much everything off in pots before planting out as last year things couldn’t get established before being eaten by leaf munching creatures.
