Prepare to Garden Under Glass!

A greenhouse has been high on my list of priorities for the last 20 years; thats how long we've lived at out current house. The snag was, we have always suffered from severe 'financial cramp' plus I didn't have the knowledge to construct a 'period style' wooden structure.

However, over the past few years I've collected together a library of old gardening and handymans books, some of which contain material which was originally written in the early part of the 20th century with the layman in mind, but by todays standards, the guidance and construction given in them is way beyond the modern ameteur's ability and space. It was access to the old books which gave me the essential guidance to design my "Crystal Palace" Allbeit, I am very lucky to have an insight into period woodworking construction along with a well stocked industrial workshop with period capabilities. In the winter of 2008 I put together a few drawings, made some experimental templates and worked out the best sizes for this new venture, taking a strong leaning towards economy and the reusing of secondhand materials.

It maybe sounds a contrary, but I started my workings on the layout of the roof structure and ventilation, taking into account the available widths of horticultural glass. My next move was to design and make up the end sections along with the entrance door. Finally I made the side frames into which I fitted hinged loose sashes for maximum ventilation. From the photos you can see that I have designed the greenhouse to stand upon a dwarf wall, because originally I had thoughts of lowering the floor of the greenhouse below the outside soil level to keep the whole structure below the height allowed by the planning authorities (4 metres maximum), but as it happened, the finished height was well within the limits.

Once I collated all the precise finished sizes, I prepared to lay the concrete footings and start building! I had never built a brick wall before, so.. I took to studying various building clips on 'Youtube' in conection with a DVD on basic bricklaying that I bought on Ebay. Its amazing what usful information one can extract from the 'ether' these days! Where would we be with out the internet?

The facing bricks I bought locally as the end of a 'run' at a cost of £150 for 3 full packs of Baggeridge Rustic Multi's delivered on site. This amount left me sufficient bricks to build the walls to about 2 foot 6 high and lay a dry brick floor in the greenhouse. The marble door step I used was aquired locally from a local salvage yard and was originally part of a staircase in Hull univerisity. That was a bargain at a tenner, but nearly killed me lifting it out of the back of my Volvo! Apart from the bricks and the ballast for the footings, this entire greenhouse was transported from my workshop in the back of a Volvo estate, (including all the glass which weighs over half a ton) I carried all the glass on specially made pallets in three separate journeys. Most of the glass came from a liquidated tomato grower in Holderness.