Potential new greenhouse

[peter831shaw]

My two cents.. You will fill up any space you have. I prefer to be able to bend over to get to things low and to be able to turn around without knocking over a plant. I also like to show off the plants sometimes and getting two people in 25" is difficult.

My tactic is to be ruthless with what I really like and share the ones that don't make that cut. I no longer need one of each.

Power is good, but with the cost of an electrician and materials you should really look at solar. Maybe on the roof of the house? Then you can use that "free" electricity to run your fans.

[ianstrutt]

My two cents.. You will fill up any space you have. I prefer to be able to bend over to get to things low and to be able to turn around without knocking over a plant. I also like to show off the plants sometimes and getting two people in 25" is difficult.

My tactic is to be ruthless with what I really like and share the ones that don't make that cut. I no longer need one of each.

Power is good, but with the cost of an electrician and materials you should really look at solar. Maybe on the roof of the house? Then you can use that "free" electricity to run your fans.

There's a trade off for sure. I think I need to physically put a couple of tables together and work out how close is too close for me to comfortably move around.

As much as I would love to use solar power, the main reason I need electric is to power a space heater over winter. I hate to think how big the solar panel would have to be to run a fan heater over a British winter.

[ralphrmartin]

I guess my question to everyone is if you were in my situation what would you buy in order to maximise capacity as well as maintain at least a reasonable level of accessibility?

I'd advise you to avoid the temptation to put in as many plants as you can, but instead, make sure the ones you put in get conditions suited to them. Avoid the temptation to have 2 levels of plants - the ones on the upper benches will probably get too hot, while the ones below wont in most cases appreciate being shaded. or dripped on at the wrong time.

Make sure winter groweers get plenty of light in winter.

Put benches at a height and of a width that you can easily reach to the back of the bench. without disturbing the ones at the front.

Have a door at both ends - not for acess, but for extra ventilation in summer. Make sure you have opening roof vents for ventilation.

I'd get a tap (and drain maybe) as well as a power supply.

[ianstrutt]

I guess my question to everyone is if you were in my situation what would you buy in order to maximise capacity as well as maintain at least a reasonable level of accessibility?

I'd advise you to avoid the temptation to put in as many plants as you can, but instead, make sure the ones you put in get conditions suited to them. Avoid the temptation to have 2 levels of plants - the ones on the upper benches will probably get too hot, while the ones below wont in most cases appreciate being shaded. or dripped on at the wrong time.

Make sure winter groweers get plenty of light in winter.

Put benches at a height and of a width that you can easily reach to the back of the bench. without disturbing the ones at the front.

Have a door at both ends - not for acess, but for extra ventilation in summer. Make sure you have opening roof vents for ventilation.

I'd get a tap (and drain maybe) as well as a power supply.

Cheers Ralph, nice to get your perspective. I don’t plan on ramming things in and packing the greenhouse to the gunnels. I just don’t want to make a potentially expensive mistake and order something I’m not happy with. My plants are pretty congested currently but that’s because I only have a tiny space in which to display them.

I wasn’t expecting perfect answers here. I’m more just trying to get a variety of opinions and make sure there’s no glaring omissions in my plans.

I’d have loved a drain and tap in there but that wasn’t realistic to have that infrastructure built in. A slab base and electric supply is proving to be expensive enough on its own!

A second level is more to keep things stored off the floor than anything. I think I have some plants that could be suitable to go down there (gasterias immediately spring to mind) but I’m fully aware I’m unlikely to be able to grow anything well/correctly with little or no direct sunlight.