Green Bug Ltd - Blog from a greenhouse builder

Lean-to in Hereford

13/10/2023

My customers want a lean-to greenhouse along the rear of their property and, luckily, when clearng the space they found well laid paving slabs already in place we can use for the floor.

This greenhouse is built from Accoya with a 50 -year guarantee. It has 2 auto-opening windows in the roof and 3 manual opening side windows with lots of flexible and removable shelving throughout.

The "London" Greenhouse

8/9/2023

My customer asked for a 3x2m greenhouse with a door along the long side - although we later extended it to 3.5m long. The building conditions mean the structure cannot be taller than 2.5m but I wanted to maximise the height and still get a 2m high doorway in.

As you can see from the photo opposite, we filled the space just right with only 3cm to spare on the height.

The base was built by local brickies as it would have been really complicated for me to come from North Wales for that. Unfortunately, the brickies didn't put the doorway in the middle of the wall and the walls height was also really short. I was given all the final measurements of the walls so I could get around this by building taller sides and making a wider door opening. The first job was to cut through the brickwork to even up the centre and bed the wallplates down.

I fitted shelving and plant hooks throughout as requested.

This greenhouse is fully double glazed. I was really grateful for that given that I built this in the hottest week of the year. It was genuinely cooler inside the greenhouse than out.

Click the video below for a short tour of the completed greenhouse.

Stepped Greenhouse complete

10/8/2023

This is probably the most complication greenhouse I have ever built.

Please click here to see the plans and base building write up which explains the obstacles this design has to overcome.

Great success though as it meets them all.

Update on past job - Oxford

4/8/2023

Lovely to get a message and photo from a past customer this morning. I completed this one almost 4 years ago - Nov 2019. The greenhouse is looking really at home in this fantastic garden.

Hi Robin,
Just an image to show how well the greenhouse is settling into the garden.
Hope you are well

Best wishes
Jonathan

Click here to view
the earlier blog entry and video for building this greenhouse.

Back to Northamptonshire

14/7/2023

Back to Northamptonshire to complete the "Steve" with add-ons!*

(* Cold frames either side of porch and extra long porch depth).

I'm not sure there's much more to say about another successful Steve construction. My customers are delighted and I am too. The pictures tell a nice story....great to see it being filled with plants.

Stepped greenhouse - Bury

23/6/2023

A stepped greenhouse? This one goes over a large step - actually the bigher level to the garden which is retained with gambion baskets filled with stone. My customer wanted me to design a greenhouse close to the shared boundary at the top of the garden but also have it stretch down onto the lower garden.

I came up with this....

There are lots of complications which restrict this design -

The overall height can't be more than 2.5m given the proximity to the shared boundary
Yet a doorway needs to fit into the lowest part of the greenhouse - normally 2m
And we need another 2m doorway at the other end of the garden
The measurements would have to be spot on especially as the structure drops down a metre of so but must still maintain it's level.
For a very long, lower pitched roof sweeping down in to the garden I suggested polycarbonate sheeting. Being lightweight, suited to lower pitches and relatively cheap it helps keep the costs down, provides some insulation against overheating and we don't need any supporting pillars in the central space.

I added 4 opening side windows and 2 auto opening roof windows to ventilate the space and the doors, being inward opening, can be left open all day if required.

I built internal steps and brick-sided internal raised beds as well.

Northamptonshire

9/6/2023

I'm building the base for another "Steve" greenhouse this week - with a couple of differences. My customer has asked me to make the porch a little longer - 1m out rather than 0.5m - and to add a cold frame on either side.

The site is between two tall beech hedges. You might assume is would be too shaded here but not at all - I was working in sun all day. This was the location of an aluminium greenhouse which performed very well for many years so they know what they are talking about!

Tackling the Welsh 3000's

3/6/2023

It's not about greenhouses but it's worth a mention. I live in one of the most beautiful parts of the world and love exploring the countryside by running the fells. I get to see Snowden (Yr Wyddfra) from my garden on clear days but this weekend I got the chance to climb all the 15 peaks of the Snowdonia range in one day. We ran it of course!

Taking another re-fueling stop whilst chatting to our guide. I'm not in this photo as I took it!

Here we're crossing the treacherous Crib Gogh just as the sun is coming up. We set off at the base of Yr Wyddfra at 4am and took just under 15 hours to complete the journey. What a blast!

I'm 3rd from the left on the above photo. An amazing bunch of fun-loving, madcap folk!

Lake District

26/5/2023

I'm up in Cumbria again this week to build a large greenhouse on a base that my customer built himself in advance. I did come over here for a few hours to bed the wallplates on and check the final measurements a couple of weeks ago - luckily I was already up this way completing another greenhouse just up the road.

I love the wall my customer has made. This was his first attempt at stonework. We did keep revising the sizes until the wall was fully finished though to make absolutely sure that it would fit just right in the end.

This greenhouse is large at 3.16m wide, 5.5m long and a roof almost 3.5m high. There a loads of opening windows - 4 along the sides, one on the rear and 4 auto-opening ones in the roof.

Raised beds before G'Hse

19/5/2023

I'm booked to build a complicated greenhouse on this site but beforehand I agreed to replace the existing raised beds the customer had made from old doors. They were a temporary solution of course and were now falling apart. It was agreed that I build solid concrete ones with rendered sides which I will paint in a colour of my customer's choice later on.

I set the first course of block in a wet mix of concrete and laid concrete to both sides to lock it tight into place. This will help strengthen it against the side pressure of soil over the years. After laying the second course of block I added corner beading and drip edges (in plastic - which won't rust like the old ones we used to use back in the day) before rendering a scratch coat to the walls. This was finished with a top coat which was brushed off to a smooth finish. All the render coats had frost-proofer added but it will be given 2 good coats of masonry paint once it's fully dry.

I built a smaller raised bed to the same spec at the other side of the garden. These will sit either side of the new greenhouse.