greenhouse floor

[roadkill]

I should be picking up my greenhouse on Thursday which I got off freecycle... what do you use for the floor in the greenhouse?
do I just build it up on the plot and have the plot ground as the floor?

cheers roadkill

[Mrs Dobby]

Two choices within the greenhouse for planting, depending where you are putting it, plant your veg directly into the soil or use growbags! Growbags are prenutrified (is that a word) for toms etc, and have the advantage that you can remove them at the end of the season easily (to prevent a build up of nasties in the soil), but have the drawback that they need very regular watering (at least once a day in hot weather), whereas planting directly into the soil means the plant roots have a much bigger wellspring of moisture to tap into, but you have to dig out the old soil and replace every year or two!

We've gone with direct into soil planting, with a row of pavers down the center to walk upon, that way the soil doesnt get too compacted by us walking on it!

Hope this is of help roadkill!

[burnie]

I always used to grow in the soil in my old green house,I got round the soil sickness/change by crop rotation and sterilising the soil with ***** fluid.It worked for me for about 8 years till I moved and left the greeen house behind.

[bramble]

Hi MrsD, no need to change the soil every year or so. It will last a lot longer than that. No need to put extra work on yourself.
Roadkill, i would plant directly into the ground if i were you unless you can get to your allotment at least twice a day for watering. The growbags are very shallow and your toms will dry out very quickly unless you can be there very in high summer.

[Mrs Dobby]

Thanks Bramble, I wasnt sure how often it needed changing so was going to err on the side of caution, but I'm fairly sure my Dad didnt change his all that often!

[dexterdoglancashire]

Hi roadkill - we used our driveway as a base for the greenhouse, my OH then put the base on that, then the greenhouse itself. As for the inside - I have the two rows of flags on either side, then put a layer of wood down as I had a horrible weed growing in that part of the garden - and yes, it has finally killed it off (inside the greenhouse that is!) still got to take the borders though! DDL

[nick the grief]

If you treat you greenhouse borders just like any other part of the garden it will be OK. You might need to swap the soil every3 or 4 years depending how big it is. If it's big enough to split into three or four section you probably never will. Just add either home made compost or a bit of muck to them & you'll be fine.

I've found that having soil in the beds helps to control the damp in the greenhouse a bit as it absorbs it out of the air whereas when I had a solid base there was always loads of condensation.

[Protea]

Sadly our garden is quite small and we're not allowed glass greenhouses at the lottie, so we have a 6x6 greenhouse in the garden just on the soil. However, it was recently taken down (for building work ) and is now back up again in a slightly better place. I had so many weeds come up last year and the ground was so uneven and soft my staging kept sinking into the ground! so.... i'm going to the builders merchants this weekend to buy paving slabs and i'm paving the lot!

I did my tomatoes in large pots this year, rather than grow bags (no room to plant in-soil), and they were much better - i also mixed in the water retaining get to the compost and this seemed to help (sorry - wandered off the point there!)

My parents greenhouse has just bare soil and this works for him, you just need to keep the weeds in check round the edges!

[JennieAtkinson]

My new greenhouse is on the soil, but an area of horrendous thistles and nettles, so I decided to go for membrane and chips and no earth borders. (It looks very nice and scrunchy when walking around!)
Like Protea I thought I would grow my toms and other veg in large pots rather than grow bags, so have been treating myself to a number of nice (real) terracotta pots. OH feels as the greenhouse is so close to the house and looks so good I can go for some really nice pots - So I am!

[bramble]

Jennie, that sounds nice. At least when the greenhouse heats up in the summer the terracotta pots will keep the soil from drying out so quickly. I use plastic ones and they dry out really quickly in high summer.

[pigletwillie]

I edged the beds in mine with some timber and put membrane down over the path and covered this with gravel. This holds onto water in the summmer to keep the air a tad moist.

[bramble]

Thats a very good idea pigletwillie, i never thought of that. My greenhouse floor is total pacing slabs. I think i might lift a row or two and do as you have done with yours.

[dexterdoglancashire]

Excellent idea PW! I was just wondering about replacing my piece of wood on the floor seeing as the horrible weeds have now gone. Thanks DDL