Grow Your Own Magazine

Again.....My stupid plastic greenhouse blew away again and trashed the radishes again

I'd weighed it down as well after the last disaster. I'm going to have to buy next doors garden so that I've got enough space for a proper greenhouse!

I sympathise hugely: we ended up selling ours after battling to get seven panes back in during successive gales late last year. Panes ended up in next door's field, in the river, all over the place. I've gone through this post and deleted all the swear words, but if you go through it again and insert them every few words you'll get an idea of how we felt about it. We have a glass one now.

Hi JennyGiraffe

Commiserations This happened to me many years ago. Mine wasn't recoverable as it had travel miles! Last seen heading for the M4.

I laugh about it now but at the time I was hoppin

They're terrible things and apparently there is nowhere wind free in my garden! Perhaps I'll just grow everything in the lounge instead.

Herbie - I'll look forward to the laughter phase in a few years then, not feeling it right now.....

I actually got some good results from one of the 6x4 (£30ish) plastic greenhouses last year, but I didn't attempt to put it up this early in the year It went in in early may and did a great job of ripening my chillis, toms etc (peppers and aubs fell victim to slugs - won't be using growbags again as they just harbour the little blighters)

ive been eyeing up the smaller £10 ones as I'm forever short of windowsill space, but it strikes me that without being pegged into the ground like the bigger ones they would blow away easily. Maybe its worth getting some tent pegs and pegging yours down on some grass, Jenny? Also if theres any 'free' plastic overhanging at the bottom you could try putting a plank of wood or something similar over it and weighing that down as well, it helps stop the wind getting underneath it.

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Tent pegs. You might be onto something there. I can see a trip up into the loft coming my way.

You'd think weighing it down with breeze blocks would work but apparently they're not heavy enough! (felt heavy when I was digging them up out of bed 1!)

my plastic greenhouse i bought just over a week ago is "supposedly shelterd by my neighbours fence and my garage wall i tied the loops on the outside (ment for the pathetic pegs you get with them ) to the fencing and trelis on 3 sides, and held down with patio slabs i dug up from the bottom of my garden, Thing i've found the roof has stretched in the wind, and the hail has made little tears in the plastic, though it has been debated they were there already got my gaffer tape ready as im not takeing it all down to be sent back took me ages to get it up, another idea suggested was to get some camoflarge (?) stuff and peg it down till the wind dies down, bit much dont you think ? i so wish i could have a proper one

My sister's OH got proper fixings drilled into the concrete base she had it on. The wind still managed to tear free a couple of fixings, then the frame bent badly and the cover tore, because of the force as it tried to free itself from the other fixings.
I remember mine a few years ago before we moved, ended up in next door's garden, then I tried putting sandbags over the bottom rails. I limited the floor space, but the shelves were OK and it walked a bit but stayed on the patio. Still had problems with the cover tearing though.
I'm so pleased I didn't go for a polycarbonate one when we moved here. I did order several, but they couldn't even manage to delivery one intact, so we cancelled the order and went for the traditional glass 8x6. With the wind we get, I reckon I'd never have any panes in a polycarbonate one. Wish the glass one could have been bigger, but that's the only problem I've had.

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I could not live without a garden, it is my place to unwind and recover, to marvel at the power of all growing things, even weeds!

http://potagerplot.blogspot.com/

Mine is held down with tent pegs around the base and 4 guylines. Hasn't blown away... yet...

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You are a child of the universe,
no less than the trees and the stars;
you have a right to be here.
Max Ehrmann, Desiderata

blog: http://allyheebiejeebie.blogspot.com/ and my (basic!) page: http://www.allythegardener.co.uk/

I dont have a plastic greenhouse, but do have a few plastic cloches on the lottie all held down with tent pegs and all surviving everything the weather has thrown at them so far. Admittedly they don't have the height of a greenhouse, but I would definitely say give tentpegs a go.

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Life may not be the party we hoped for but since we're here we might as well dance

I have 2 of the £10 plastic greenhouses. Bought them last year and they were great. Put them back up in the garden about 4 weeks ago - tied them down with strong plastic tent pegs and put a heavy weight on the bottom shelf. So far so good - they even survived the gales we had recently. I'm now considering going up market and buying one the larger £30ish ones. Last of the big spenders me!