Grow Your Own Magazine

Hello

My dear parents have today said that they are going to give me & the other half some money as a wedding present and asked that we "put it towards the garden," so we've decided we would like to get a greenhouse (well, more like OH has said i can finally have one!) But when it comes to siting it i'm a bit confused about it all to be honest.

Dad says get the biggest & best i can afford, which sounds good advice so i've decided on a 10x8 as we have a big garden. And there is an obvious area to site it on which is right beside the veg patch, fairly level, has large trees behind it & will mean it faces South-west ish. But the ground underneath it isn't very good and has an old tree stump in the middle.

The best answer i can think of to this will be to dig the stump out best we can & lay a concrete base, but will this be ok as it means i won't be able to grow stuff directly in the ground & will have to rely on pots/grow bags etc. Has anyone else who's got a concrete base with their greenhouse had any problems with this? Also, probably an obvious question but, does the frame just get bolted/screwed into the concrete?

I know i sound really daft, but i've never had a greenhouse before so thought it best to ask all you wise grapes out there your opinions on the issue! Any thoughts / comments greatly appreciated (and sorry for the essay!)

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Newbie,
keen but clueless

Hi Newbie
I would try and avouid putting down a concrete base, unless you are good at levelling and then screeding it towards a drain that you will have to put in the floor too.
Dig out the stump, then you have a couple of options. You can lay a path up the middle and have raised beds on either side (you can buy enough topsoil for that size greenhouse fairly cheaply), or remove what topsoil you can. lay a permeable membrane over the floor area and cover it with gravel or chips or similar, then grow in pots or growbags.
You maight also want to consider staging down one side to put your seed trays, small pts etc on - and for storing all the other bits and pieces that you will surely gather 1

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Rat

British by birth
Scottish by the Grace of God

[size="1"]Journal updated Monday 7th July