| Hints and tips on choosing a greenhouse |
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| How do I go about choosing a new greenhouse? |
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| Good foundations for the greenhouse base |
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| Choosing A Good Position for your Greenhouse |
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| Understanding the standard dimensions of greenhouses |
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| What are the most common greenhouse styles? |
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| How do I maximise growing capacity? |
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| Building and deciding on foundations for your new Greenhouse. |
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| How do I go about choosing a new greenhouse? |
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In an ideal world, with plenty of space to site your new greenhouse and cost is not an issue, the growing capacity you require is likely to determine the size. Keen amateur gardeners may choose a small greenhouse (6 wide by 8 long), while gardeners who require a much bigger growing capacity might opt for a large greenhouse, for example 10 wide by 14 long.
However, choosing a greenhouse inevitably involves a trade-off between the growing capacity and the actual physical space you have in your garden to put it!
Our 3 most popular greenhouses are the 6' x 8',6' x 6',and the
6' x 4' |
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| What practical tips can I follow? |
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Survey your garden
If you start by doing this first, you will quickly identify all the options you have for the best position for your new greenhouse. There are several main factors to bear in mind:
Best Position and aspect
Some recommend that a greenhouse should be positioned so that the ridge-line of the roof lies east to west to ensure that the longest side of the greenhouse will be fully exposed to the sun from the south. While there is an advantage in following this advice, particularly for long greenhouses such as 8' x 20', it's important is not to overestimate this. This is because the most common sizes of greenhouses, such as the 6' x 8' are virtually square so an east to west aspect makes little difference.
Its sufficient to position any one side of a small or medium sized greenhouse in a south or southwest facing aspect for best exposure to sunlight.
However, dont worry if this isnt possible because, even if only the roof catches direct sunlight, this will be sufficient to warm-up your greenhouse considerably.
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| Good foundations for the greenhouse base |
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A level, or almost level, site will require less work to achieve a good floor area for the foundations of your greenhouse. The most popular method of making a foundation is to lay flag stones ensuring an overlap of at least 6 inches outside the dimensions of the greenhouse base.
However, fixing your greenhouse direct into the soil is not nearly as secure or strong as bolting the base of the frame to a hard surface.
Most greenhouses are supplied with an aluminium base on which to mount the greenhouse frame.
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Shelter from the wind
If your garden is in an exposed position consider the proximity of hedges, walls or fences that will provide some shelter from wind.
All greenhouses, even the very best ones, are vulnerable to strong winds so this is something to bear in mind.
Avoid Trees
To prevent potential damage to your greenhouse, overhanging trees are best avoided if at all possible!
Ease of use and maintenance
When deciding on the position for your greenhouse, also consider how convenient it will be to gain access to it.
If you place it at the end of the Garden, how easy will it be to get to on cold wet days?
Services
Consider how you will get water and if needed electricity to your new greenhouse. Quite a few Greenhouses require some form of electrical supply. Propagotors , heaters.
Visual appearance
This is an important factor for many greenhouse buyers since they want their new greenhouse to blend into their existing garden landscape.
Most greenhouses nowadays come in an attractive Green finish. This blends in to the surrounding gardens and no longer is considered an eyesore.
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| Now that you have decided on the best position for your greenhouse. Consider the following. |
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Measure your preferred site
A greenhouse is impossible to select and price up until you know the width and length of your site. Remember to leave sufficient space around the perimeter of the greenhouse base, to allow you access for cleaning.
Understanding the standard dimensions of greenhouses
The most important measurement is the width traditional greenhouse styles offer widths in 2 increments e.g. 4, 6, 8 etc. The length of the greenhouse can then be specified to fit into the site you have measured. Again, traditional greenhouses are available in multiples of 2 lengths e.g. 4, 6, 8, etc.
A similar principle applies to lean-to greenhouse styles. Ideal for keeping close to the house.
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| What are the most common greenhouse styles? |
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Essentially, there are three distinct greenhouse styles available to choose from,Traditional, Lean-to or Octagonal.The traditional or freestanding greenhouse is the UKs most popular style.
Our best selling Free Standing Greenhouse is the 6 X 8 Greenhouse With Polycarbonate INCLUDES BASE
An octagonal style of greenhouse makes a delightful garden feature that is still practical for housing your seedlings and plants when optional shelving sections are added. The lean-to style takes advantage of an existing wall, for example a south facing house or garage wall. A big advantage of a lean-to is that the wall itself acts as a storage heater by releasing the stored warmth of the sun into the greenhouse during the night, so creating a good growing environment.
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| What size of greenhouse do I need? |
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| Assuming space in your garden is not an issue, this largely depends on how much growing you are planning to do, and to a lesser extent,how much storage space you will need inside your greenhouse. However, most gardeners know that the most common complaint about greenhouses is that they are too small! |
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| How do I maximise growing capacity? |
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| Assuming space in your garden is not an issue, this largely depends on how much growing you are planning to do, and to a lesser extent,how much storage space you will need inside your greenhouse. However, most gardeners know that the most common complaint about greenhouses is that they are too small! |
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 | Growing Capacity |  |
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| Green Staging - An Ideal Optional Extra | |
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| Which is the best foundation for drainage, concrete or paving slabs? |
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You can choose to sit your metal base straight onto either a concrete foundation or one made of paving slabs and then use screws to secure the base of the greenhouse into position. Paving slabs can be an advantage to solid concrete for the foundations because slabs provide natural drainage inside the greenhouse by allowing water to escape through the gaps This natural drainage can be vey benificial. If you put in a solid concrete floor with a membrane and then paint or tile it, it will look very nice, but you may find puddles of water forming on top of the floor for time to time.
No greenhouse is 100% waterproof! Water can come in under the bottom of the base, from watering spills or from an occasional leak and so its very important to allow the water somewhere to escape naturally.
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| How accurate do the measurements of my foundations need to be? |
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| With the use of paving slabs for your foundation, the accuracy of measurements is not critical. It's important that you make the area of slabs bigger than the footprint of the greenhouse. For example, for a 6by 8 greenhouse, you might slab an area 8by 10. If you wish, this will then allow you to position water butts on a firm foundation either side of your greenhouse. |
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| Greenhouse foundations and bases |
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| A level foundation of paving slabs is ideal for both locating the metal base of your greenhouse and for drainage. |
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| Do I need a metal base? Why not fix my greenhouse straight onto slabs? |
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Yes you will need a metal base.This is because greenhouses would traditionally sit onto a small brick wall so that the bottom sill of the greenhouse frame would overlap the edge of the brick.
Using a metal base removes the need to build a small brick wall because the greenhouse can now overlap the metal base.You can of course get around this problem if you decide to sit the greenhouse onto a thin piece of wood.
However, by adopting this approach you will not achieve another important benefit of using a metal base it gives you an extra four or even five inches of extra height inside your greenhouse. This can make a big difference.
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Coloured Finish
Over the past few years there has been a real change in the greenhouse market. In the old days greenhouses were often considered an eyesore and were hidden at the bottom of the garden! Now, thats all changed with the introduction of powder coating technology which enables coloured finishes to be applied to the bare aluminium greenhouse frame.
Our 3 most popular greenhouses are all Green powdered coated.
How long does powder coating last and will it need re-painting?
No, you will never have to re-paint your greenhouse. All powder coating usually has a life of 15-25 years.
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