Kitting Out Our First Greenhouse

As you may have seen in other threads, we recently put up our greenhouse in the back garden. It's a 6x4 Palram Harmony, with polycarbonate panels and with this being our first greenhouse we're basically going into this almost completely blind.



Basically, we're looking for advice on how to best make use of the space and where to buy things like shelving and staging. Looking around online is good, but usually ends with the website recommending you buy their ridiculously expensive products. From the short time I've been on here it's become obvious that there are some experienced heads when it comes to greenhouses.

There will need to be a place for potting, simply because we don't have room to do that anywhere else and I'm sick of having to cover the kitchen table and floor with newspaper. We have no plans to grow directly in the ground as the soil here resembles the Morph ancestral graveyard, so possibly space for a growbag as the old man has already expressed interest in growing tomatoes.

We've already found a minimum/maximum thermometer (at the recommendation of a family friend) and will be placing a waterbutt between the greenhouse and the concrete post to the right of it.

In short, any product recommendations or general tips for kitting out a greenhouse from scratch?

 

Hi Moley, i am a newbie with greenhouses last year i grew a few toms cucumbers and peppers in these Flower & Vegetable Waterer - 2811 - Hozelock they appeared to the job ok i had a few pickings, quite handy if you go away as well,

Good luck with whatever you get your GH looks great .

 

Hi @Moley it looks great and there'll be a few experts on your case with sound advice on organisation as Martin can vouche for but otherwise it looks nice there and worth the money

 

I think you need to decide what you want to grow before you invest in too much "stuff". Staging is good but I couldn't find any that wasn't ridiculously expensive and went for 2 of these type of trestle tables (my greenhouse is 20ft x8ft I hasten to add, these tables are quite big) These cost about £30 each and being plastic topped is ideal. They are well built and can take some weight. They fold in half and can be stored out of the way when you want to grow say Tomatoes. Have a look at Bio green folding shelves. I got shelving with my silver coloured greenhouse. A friend of mine gave me 2 sets of these green shelving as a present before she knew I already had shelving, so they were somewhat surplus to what I needed. If you would like to buy 1 or both sets off me just PM me. They have never been fitted, have all the screw attachments but may not have the fitting instructions! They look really sturdy and a good idea being folding but it's just a thought.

 

Hi,

Exciting times for you, so many things you could buy and do, so a few suggestion for this starter year.

Assuming you have one or two roof vents, then fit one or two auto openers, an absolute must as the temps can skyrocket very quickly.
You may find your min max often reaches 30 - 40c even with auto vents, not too unusual.

Rather than worry about benches etc for this year, consider a few pairs of these ebay shelf brackets, and use some 150mm board, I use some upvc offcuts.
You can get a full sized seed tray or most pots on them, ideal for any trailing plants like Fuchsias.

Again use growbags and large pots on your gravel, so you can get plants in there now rather than wait for benches etc.
The gravel will be very handy for damping down /cooling.

Use a 40lt or similar tub in the greenhouse full of water so its always ready at the same temp as the plants, not stone cold water from the tap /hose.

You will need some shading, during the coming few months and have found this white paint on shading very easy to use on my polycarb.

hth

 

I use a company callled Two West’s & Elliott. I kitted my entire greenhouse out from them -

Staging & Benching - For Your Greenhouse

 

These are some of the bits I bought








It’s all down to personal choice on what you want in there. I have a potting bench at the end, staging down one side plus more metal shelving and then gravel trays down the other side for tomatoe plants and pots.

 

@Moley your greenhouse is for growing. I have one that size and it will not do double duty as a potting area. I use a potting table similar to those shown but mine has a faucet that I can hook up to my outdoor hose line and it is at the side of my house not in the gh. I collapse and store it from fall through the winter.

The more permanent fixtures you put in there, the more you limit yourself to flexibility.

You made an extremely important good choice in picking a unit with a hinged door. Cudos!

That looks like my palram and I went on to order two more of the smaller model because tney are awesome. Do yourself a favour and dig an access trench to allow you to push electrics or water lines under and into your lovely greenhouse

Believe you me, it is the most fun you're going to have.

I have added solar powered fans, lighting etc because I am so hooked on these season extenders and I live in zone 5

There are lots of ways to sidestep and find less expensive products featured by other posts here. Been there done that !!!

 

Unless you are there everyday to open / close the windows, I second autovents to do it for you - I have four bayliss autovents & they are on their fourth year.

Best thing I ever did putting the greenhouse up - so much so I have two now..

 

I have 2 Bayliss autovents and they're at least 25 years old Bayliss Autovents, Greenhouse Autovents, About Us They produce their quality products in the UK, and are always exceptionally helpful with any enquiries.

 

I've got 2 of those folding tables each size 750 x 1800mm which are used for carbooting, seed sowing/potting up on, plus putting plants outside during the day or in my garage on chilly nights when it's getting a bit crammy in the greenhouse close to planting out time.