new greenhouse installed, more or less

Hi Fran its nice to have somewhere to put things in to keep them warm and help them grow.Very well done in building it up.Unfortunately you may have to get someone to attach it to your shed to help give it more support and strength as with the high winds in this country it will blow down.Sorry to put a downer on your lovely walk in greenhouse.Wish you all the best .Mark,julie,jordan and bonnie x

Thsts what I was thinking Mark, top and bottom maybe......

its a brilliant job though Fran, especially on your own.....all those parts!!

Well done for putting the greenhouse up by yourself. What an achievement!

Well done Fran! It's going to be a great asset...as long as the wind doesn't destroy it. But let's think positive...it has the shelter of the shed. Happy propagating!

Thanks Mark and Pam and Littlemc and Karen.

lot it wasn't really "an acheievement" - there's only me, so if I don't do it solo it don't get done. Of course I could have got the handyman to do it (and may get him to tighten the connections, he's stronger and taller than me) but that'd cost - all it cost me was time and a bit of temper!

It was still there this morning (but that doesn't really prove anything!) It;s facing the direction that the wind usually blows hardest, so the door would have to be kept closed to avoid ballooning from inside - and it's got the shed behind it for a "backstop", even if not actually tied to it yet.

I was able to tweak the cover down a tiny bit, so it'll probably be able to be pulled down more as the creases settle out of it; or maybe it rode up a bit - the ties are quite short and thick, not able to get a really tight knot in there, and only some of them are placed to tie under a shelf where the junction would hold it in place, the others are just tied to a length of pole where they can ride up. I thought of Velcro (I've got Velcro plant ties, just cut a length, wrapit it round the object and stick ends together) but need to find attahcment points on the cover; maybe tie the ties to themselves and thread the Velcro through.

And need to find better anchors - small enough to let me in, heavy enough to hold it down. Found some bricks under a pottted plant that looks dead, can use those; half a dozen bricks should make a difference.

No doubt I'll be tweaking it for some time, little bits here and there, but at least finally I've got the think up to *be* tweaked!

Wow Fran, well done, think I'd have been yelling for help before it was even half done.

Hmm could you tie some lengths of rope (something strong anyway) to the base of the greenhouse then anchor them someway outside - that way you've still got easy access. Oooh instead of ropes fix the guy ropes in place and anchor them with something heavy - or a couple of heavy duty eyelets screwed into the shed maybe?

The eyelet idea above is a good one, Fran. That's what I did years ago when I had a greenhouse like this (but smaller). You certainly are determined, aren't you? Good for you, well done :)

Good thought, Samjp! I've got stack of string, cord and rope af various thicknesses. Never occured to me to use them, so thanks for that!

i could tie a brick and fasten the ends through a couple of eyelets; they could go inside or out, and would be small enough not to be too much of a nuisance.

Given that they supplied guys, they whould have put attachment points as well.

There's a small gap between shed base and concrete slab, i might be able to get pegs down there, but don't want to do anytihng permanent until I'm sure of the final location.

I was chattering away to myself while I was putting it together, or to the bits of it, scolding them for being the wrong pieces that I'd picked up by mistake!

Thanks, Gee. lol more bored than determined! at least to start with, but once I get started I like to finish - if I leave some of it to another day,, I'd proably lose the boxes of bits!

My little wooden greenhouse shifted in the wind this winter. My brothers one like yours landed in a neighbours garden, and he thought it was anchored firmly! Friends at Melksham found their one in the car park. The cat was really miffed as he had commandeered it for a shelter. All this happened this winter and never before, so you might get away with it. Maybe if you tie through the eyelets onto the shelving, then weight 2 bottom shelves, one either side with pots of stones, paving stones or soil.

shee, Dorjac, that must have been some wind!!!

I'm hoping that the other shed will be some kind of windbreak, or diverter, at least - it's end-on, about six feet towards the gate, and hte wind - of course, wind that's diverted still has to go somewhre, and might end up somewhere even more undesirable! (got to think about that when putting up a windbreak on the house corner; where will it get diverted to??)

I'll certainly tie the eyelets to the frame, and also to bricks, at least - if I can get some pavers that should be even more effectie - or, lol, concrete the whole thing in place! and that'd save me tripping over the entrance, too! but not till Im sure it's where it'll tay for the duration.

Wow Dorjac, I thought my greenhouse walked far this winter. That must have been one strong wind.

Lol Fran pavers may help, but don't count on it. My greenhouse was screwed onto 2 blinking big heavy paving slabs (the big old fashioned concrete things), it still went for a "walk" down the garden several times this winter. I'm going to screw mine to the garage this year (or concrete a wooden post in the ground and screw it to that).

As a temporary measure I'd go with a mixture of ropes and bricks and something heavy on the bottom shelves. Once your sure where your putting it you can always work on something more secure for long term.

If you need to divert the wind around it, how about some trellis with a climber positioned between the prevailing wind and the greenhouse. Rather than diverting the wind it will slow it down some. If you haven't got any planting ground there you could always get one of those planters with trellis (http://www.gardensite.co.uk/Trellis_Planter_by_Forest.htm this sort of thing I mean)

thanks Samjp - gee, your wind prob soudns even worse than Dorjac's!!

Ii've got larage sacks of compsot and bark chips which should weight the bottom of the greenhouse, but the only frame right at the bottom is on the outside, nothing on the inside edge of hte shelf to put something on for ballast. Of course, getting the sacks there will be fun (60 + 100 litres), and they'll slowly be used, but by then I should have found a permanent home for the g'house.

They're just inside the back gate at the moment, half-covered with an old shower curtain - good enough for sealed bags, but once I start dipping in they'll need to be covered. Not really sure about bending down to get them in place, or out again, but only one way to see if it can be did.

The g'house is backed on to one shed, with the other in front of it, end-on, the "composter bed" between them. The wind mostly comes from the left-hand side as you face the gate, and the sheds are on the left, so it'd whistle round the first one, then round the corner of the house (but the composter was on that concrete slab and ended up halfway down the garden path! - but that was empty, and presented a wide surface to the wind, even in the lee.)

can't really divert the wind - just slow it down a bit would do - a fence with air-gaps would last a lot longer than a solid fence that would probably soon be pushed over.

I'd like a lot of windbreaks or at least, wind-disruptors around, but they need to be held strongly enough that they can do their job! I did think about roofing the whole gate end, car-port style, but the front edge would have to be lower than the fence, or the wind would get under it and just lift it off. And the wind would still have to go somewhere after ...

thanks for that link; I'd seen these, and other similar, and had thought about them, but as usual, "where?" is the qustion!

Not sure its quite that bad, but we're fairly exposed here. There's nothing but fields directly in front of the house so the wind tends to rip across us and somehow the back garden can be a bit of a wind tunnel (even with the village behind us).

I'm hoping the trellis on the top of the new fence will help to slow the wind down a little bit and stop it eddying over the fence.

Sounds you've got quite a dilemma there. I'd probably look at trellising and shrubby type plants that will stand the exposure. They will help to filter the wind and slow it down. You may be able to fix the trellis onto the side of the shed. Or you can get trellis feet (is that the right word) that can be bolted into concrete (or other hard floors) if there's no were to push a post into the ground. Oohh how about a willow screen (or similar), theoretically that would still allow the wind to pass through. May not survive the winds for long though.

No worries Fran. OH found the link a couple weeks back, the prices seem quite reasonable on there (for the wooden planters anyway)

the main prob is that the path wrpas round the corner of the house that the wind blows from, so how to block it or slow it without obsttucting the path? did think of adding an internal gate, which might help. or not, of ocurse!

I should wait to see what the weather's like the rest of hte year before I make any definite plans - this has been an exceptionally stormy season, and might not happen again (till next year!(. if it's only seasonal, maybe have to learn to live with it.

Besides, the rest of the garden at the back and the side does need measuirng, plotting and planning - and you can bet that any plans I make now will be superceded in six months. and as everything depends on everything else, I don't want to have to undo anything I've already done - at least, not when it comes to permanent structures!

Aslo I need to check wthi HA - what counts as "improvemnt" and what counts as "leave things as you found them"??

ps, leading on from that link yuou gave me, I found "101 things for kids to do utside", which I posted as a separate blog - some of those sound fun for grown-ups, too!!

Thought of another belt and braces idea Fran. A row of cuphooks upside down screwed into the shed and hooked over the greenhouse framework. One of the sections of clear plastic roofing on our canopy was flapping up and down in the worst gale. I fixed up a Heath Robinson solution (indescribable) then a friend came and got up and reslotted the panel back into its rubber insert with a few hearty bashes with a rubber mallet. I presented him with a dirty great clamp from hubby's workshop and it is still up there.....so is the panel. The panels have been there for 25 years and never budged. So this was a very extreme prolonged weather event all over the country.

that's a good idea, Dorjac, thanks, will make a note to add to the other helpful notes! That sounds a very long-term solution and so a very effective one.

As the g'house cover is in one.piece, it'd man puncturing the cover to get the hook over the frame - *s* if you don't mind I won't do that immediately! but the 4-tier is cover-less, so I could do it for that

But it's a damn good all-round fix-it, and I'm sure I'll find uses for it all round the garden, and indoors, too

*nominated Dorjac for GoY "brilliantly simple idea" awad*

Hmm awkward spot, I see your dilemma. Have to admit I'm stumped now. Will have a think though.

That's a great idea Dorjsc, so simple but should be really effective. I second Frans nomination.

once I've tied the eyelets in the bottom of the cover to the frame, and tied at least two of the guys to the shed, and tied bircks or similar to the bottom frame on the inside, that might be all that's needed! at least until we get winds such as we had before, when further steps might be needed (probably steps next door to get my greenhouse back!). But the suggestions I've had from you lovely people won't go to waste for other things around the garden.

Thanks for the comps Fran. I think my weird solutions to probs come from years of doing none harming battle with some very determined foxes. They do their move and I move my piece on the chess board of the foxy game. Sometimes they win and cubs trash the garden sometimes we win and the garden stays untrashed with no cubs. My brother is good at that stuff too but is sometimes beaten by extremes.

One mostly has to learn by trial and error, but there's a lot of experience and wisdom "out there" which is a well waiting to be tapped.

"experience is a comb nature gives us after we have gone bald"!!

While I sympathize with all your problems, Fran, I just couldn't chucking away to myself at the things you mentioned & your experiences, etc!

I have nothing to add to the advice others have given you -BTW I'd third the nomination for Dorjac! - & I hope you have been able to "fix" your greenhouse in place now.

I know this comment is late but I've only just managed to catch up with the blogs this evening & still have yours to finish.

late but always welcome, Balcony!! and a laugh is a good thing to have caused.

I did an "anchoring the greenhouse" blog, so hope it's enough for ow. of course, i won't know till we get more big winds, so i'm happy to remain wondering for a year or so!

I saw & commented on your other blog.

Hope we don't get such strong winds again in a long, L-O-N-G time!

lot second that, Balcony!

and the road curves a bit about here, so the wind has a starught run, and the shed near the gate funnels it more. I'm thinking of getting some sort of ga te or windbreak - not to stop the wind, it'd just push it over! and to stop it from blowng here will just divert it somewhere else, where it mgiht be even worse! just to break it up a bit