A Poor Retired Plumbers Green Fingers Not

Hi there Forum members

Ok, so am I a gardener, oh no, hate it with a vengeance. To me it’s just dam hard work, with little or no personal reward at the end of the day. That’s an opinion which I will inevitably take to my grave, probably in not-too-distant future.

So why does man’s fancy take him in a direction that holds little or no attraction to him, well it’s a long story and I know my fellow forum members can’t wait to read the reasons.

Just before Covid hit our shores I found myself and not known at the time many other likeminded retired guys were looking like me for alternative ways of keeping ourselves occupied. My mind turned to vegetables. I always had a hankering to eat a tomato I had personally planted, nurtured, and grown. And this appealed to me in many self-centered ways. Firstly, no grass to cut, no hedge to trim and so on. No, my idea centered around an oasis of glass, wood and concrete. Yes, you have guessed a greenhouse, more to the point a maintenance free sanctuary where one may pass the time of day completely oblivious to the understanding of nature.

Now once my good wife succumbed to my constant pleading, I googled the plethora of available glass houses and my god there is and are umpteen to choose. I decided on the lean too version from Halls and it was priced at £800. With this in mind I decided to look at accessories and decided on staging for potting etc. could not believe the price of a three-foot bench i.e., in excess of £100, so guess what.

Now the initial idea was to build three and keep them loose so as to remove them when not needed, also decided on a cupboard to keep my Tomorite in. But as my wife noted where is the potting compost and top soil going. So, bench number three became the storage and potting bench.

Also didn’t want to install permanent water supply to it as it would definitely freeze, so took an old water cistern and covered it with some old 40mm fence spindles I had and topped it off with a door facing. Fitted a drain to the bottom for winter.

I am not going into the build as you guys and gals can see how they are constructed. Initially I had grandeur plans for multiple mortises and tenon dovetails etc., but I had to keep reminding myself they are going into a glass box with temperatures in excess of warm and cold. So, glue and screws, lots of screws, my god was there lots of screws.

I ordered six sets of full extension drawer hardware and the handles are plumber based with 15mm copper pipe. I coated the inside of the storage vessels with epoxy paint to make them waterproof.

I finished off everything with two coats of decking stain which is really thick and hides a multitude of woodworking sins.

After all this I decided to order my greenhouse which was now £1200- and 52-weeks delivery. This was turning into a very expensive tomato.

Lastly as my rear backdoor is slanted, I laid a new base with a drainage channel and installed a 240v electric supply which consists of one 13amp plug socket outlet with a spurred fused outlet to 3amp for an LED light for night potting. In the UK we are not allowed to mix ring mains with lighting circuits as they are rated differently, hence the spurred outlet to reduce the amps for protection.

So that’s the situation to date. All dressed up and nowhere to go, what a bummer. Apparently everyone had the same idea as myself and stocks vanished, then factory shut down due to Covid.

So why the post, well the wife said post the greenhouse furniture, some members may get a few ideas if they are into gardening etc.

This I hope is episode one of two with the second being the installation of the greenhouse, where I will probably find my staging benches do not fit through the door and may end up building the structure around them, time will tell.

Costs were as follows
All the wood was cuttings from stock except for a sheet of 9mm ply at £34
Drawer pulls were Amazon at £30
Decking stain at £18
Epoxy paint at £15

Colin in Scotland in his imaginary greenhouse.