[Trikervix]

Hello folks, you've got a newbie here please be gentle!

I've just aquired a green house, and as I've no desire to grow flowers (unless they're edible!) I hope to use it for growing veg etc, now I don't have much experience of these things apart from a few container grown tomatoes peppers and carrots some years ago, so what I'd like to know is what I should put down as a base for the greenhouse?
Should I use slabs, gravel or a mixture of the two?
 :?

[GrannieAnnie]

Hi TV, when I got my first little greenhouse, OH made a brick base around the outside to stand the greenhouse on, then inside he made a concrete patch 2 thirds of the way up the middle.  The first year I grew my tomatoes in the border soil as it was virgin soil, then the 2nd year I didn't want tomato blight getting a hold so I laid down some weed suppressant and covered one side with gravel which is where my staging goes, and some bark we had on the other 2 sides and this year, I have some of my cucumbers in there growing in pots standing on the bark.

[John]

The little greenhouse at home has a flagged base so everything is grown in pots but the one on the allotment will (if I ever get the thing up) have soil borders at the sides.

Soil borders, with lots of compost etc, are great in that they tend to hold water so if you miss watering one day things are OK. The down side is that the soil can sicken so you need to dig out at least the top six inches and replace each year to stop build ups of disease.

Benefits for the veg grower are an early start on most things and a later finish.

A lot of people grow late potatoes for Christmas in their greenhouse and get some very early potatoes in the spring. Over winter salads in the house as well.

[Trikervix]

Thanks all - some food for thought there!  

[Beanzie]

My allotment Greenhouse (aluminium 10*6) is raised on concrete kerbing or edging stones.
I only use soil in the greehouse covered with a weed membrane. I use the soil fortified with well rotted compost and blood, fish and bone. This produces decent crops with the advantage that even in the heat of summer you can get away with watering once a week.

The downside is that you should really swap the soil to a depth of 18 inches every 3-4 years. This is a big job  for the winter and I swap with soil from my allotment annual flower border.

[dave]

It is a good general idea to use something to raise the level of the greenhouse a bit to make it easier to move around in, especially if you are tallish.
railway sleepers are often used, or those breeze block/aerated cement type blocks, which don't cost huge amounts.
learnt this by experience of not doing it, and reminded every time I bang my head/get my hair full of cobwebs.

[Celtic Eagle]

The base on my green house is slabs and everything is in containers. I did try to use soil borders a long time ago but I don't remember it being very successful.   Never really thought about raising ithe G/H on extra slabs around the edge could that be a problem for getting in and out I wonder. like the idea of extra height though

[mellowmick]

I have two 4'x3' pallets nailed together as my base, resting on a foundation of loose bricks. Then a frame of 2"x2" batons, 7' high, nailed to the pallets, filled in with odd shaped sheets of perspex. Whole thing about the size of 2 phone boxes. No door, so I improvised with a 7' length of that wired-together brushwood roll, which I use like a big roller-blind. Bit cramped inside, and I'm planning an extension for the winter, but it has seen me through my first four months well enough. Six big Gardeners Delight toms which I'm about to nip out the tops, a big, flowering cucmber plant which I can't get to for the toms, and two big bush type plum tomato plants. Then a set of dexion shelves with potted aubergines, toms and peppers on. Only setback was when the gales blew in the main front perspex panel, then blew off the main roof panel. Toms flattened, but all have recovered.

[noshed]

Sound impressive - have you got a picture? I've got a few sheets of corrugated plastic I was thinking of turning into a greenhouse.

[mellowmick]

have you got a picture?

If you go to the allotment photos on the album, it's on page 7.

[noshed]

Thanks - small but perfectly formed. I'll have to work out a plan for the autumn. Too hot for building at the moment.

[milkman]

My greenhouses on the plot are both on wooden frames, anchored in the ground at the corners by metal fence post stakes.  OH did an excellent job getting the frames level.