A Day in the Garden Putting the New Greenhouse into Use

This week, after all the rain had cleared and the weather took a turn for the better, I decided to spend a day in the garden, putting our new greenhouse into use. The greenhouse had been delivered a couple of weeks previous and OH and I had gradually got it all painted with preservative ready to construct. 

It cost around £500 to buy untreated, which wasn't cheap, but if we'd wanted to get it painted before delivery, it would have cost another £500, so we decided to paint it ourselves. OH just ordered some preserving paint in the same colour as our garden room and bit by bit over the last week or two, we gave all the parts a couple of coats of preservative.

OH then constructed it over a couple of days and it was ready to go. Here's the greenhouse empty and ready to be put into use:

We bought the new greenhouse to replace a small metal and plastic greenhouse that we've had for a good few years now. It's worked pretty well for us, but we wanted something a little bigger that would look a bit more grown up. We do have limited space in our garden, so in the end we went for this one which I think is 6ft x 4ft. It was as big as we could get into the space we have on our decking.

Here's a picture of the greenhouse that we had previously:

There's nothing particularly wrong with this one, but it was getting a bit full and does look a touch messy. It was a cheap solution at the time and has lasted well, but it's time for a change. I will see if anyone at the allotment wants me to take it there, as not everyone has much room at home to grow seedlings on. It would be good to keep it in use until it falls apart. I will probably just need to get a new cover for it as the current one has ripped in a couple of places, they're not expensive though.

I chose a dry morning and set about emptying the old greenhouse and putting the new one in it's place. It took 2 or 3 hours to do this. Once I'd emptied the greenhouse and moved it out of the way, I had to sweep the decking and fence and also prune back a bush to the side of it before we could put the new greenhouse in place.  OH had to do this, as it was just way too heavy for me to even push.

I made sure to brush everything off to get rid of snails, spiders (there were some big ones) and cobwebs, before placing everything in the new greenhouse. I did get rid of a few things, but not a great deal, as we do use most of what is in here. There are currently only two shelves which did mean that it was difficult to find a space for everything, but OH is going to build at least one more lower shelf into one side and may be some higher ones too to put the seedlings on. That will be a job for another day though.

Eventually, everything was put in and it now looks like this:

We really like it, it looks so much tidier. I will move more stuff around as and when we get more shelves, but for now one shelf has all the plants I need to overwinter on it and the other has seed trays and hand tools. Pots, bags of compost and other larger tools are all on the floor, but corralled into dustbins to keep them tidy and organised.

After finishing the greenhouse, I then tidied up the decking, sweeping behind plant pots, cutting back some plants in the border and also pruning back a couple of plants that had got a bit unwieldy. I was probably a bit brutal, but I'm pretty sure they'll grow back. I also planted out a plant I've been meaning to put in the border for a while, but couldn't actually get to it. OH also returned the bench and table to the decking area so it was back to normal.

Here's a picture of how the decking area looks now:

It is a little bare, but there is more to cut back later in the year or maybe next spring. It looks much tidier though. All that's left to do in this part of the garden is repot up the hanging basket which is just about over, but I will do this another day. 

The patio area of the garden is the next area that I need to tackle. I have some plants on the table that need putting in one of the borders and we need to try to brush the algae and moss from the bricks. We're also going to clean off and paint the dividing fence with the same preservative as the shed and greenhouse, as it's looking a bit worse for wear. This will be easier once everything has properly died back.

It was a good day's work and it looks completely different to how it's looked all summer, but at least half the garden is now winter ready. We now have several bags of garden waste to take to the tip, as we don't get a collection anymore, as you now have to pay for it. We can't actually take it at the moment, as there are some road works on the route which will take ages to negotiate, so we'll have to wait a few weeks to do that, but I'm happy with the day's progress.