Wednesday, 24 February 2010

As it stands today





I sowed the Tomatoes and Peppers at the end of January, they were sown in seed trays and put in my homemade propagator, which is made out of a polystyrene box and a light bulb on a dimmer switch.
They were up in 7 days and I pricked them out into the pots you see in the pictures,
The greenhouse looks abit shabby at the moment, I put some winter lettuce and Rocket into last years growbags, so hopefully will get a crop before they need to be cleared out.
I have also sowed my Broad beans into some guttering, these will go outside when big enough.

Greenhouse Construction




I built my greenhouse in january last year, I had a very tight budget and space was limited, so I could not afford a standard off the shelf job and even if I could it would not have made best use of the space available.
As a fairly competent handyman and keen shed builder I decided to make it myself. I surfed ebay for some cheap glazing panels and having trolled through loads of second hand UVPC window sales, found someone offering 8 shop windows from Macclesfield!! They were in hardwood frames and were 2.4m long by 1m wide. I put a bid in for £10 and won it! amazing! There was however a slight problem, I had to go and collect them.... me from Suffolk.... I had a fairly big car at the time and with careful measuring I realised that if I took all the seats out (bar the drivers) they would just fit. Anyway after a 10 hour round journey I had managed to get them safely home. The wood need some TLC a sand down and treatment with wood preservative did the trick. I used these panels around the sides and used clear corrugated perspex for the roof, Job Done!
The windows/vents were made from Polycarbonate sheets with auto vent openers. The auto vents worked brilliantly and well worth the money in saved time and worry.
I also installed a trickle irrigation system on a automatic timer, this too was vital as we wanted to go away for a summer break.