Mam's new greenhouse

Those of you that have read my blog before may have already seen the post about the demolition of Dad's Old Greenhouse after thirty years of use. Well this Saturday was another big day for us, with the erection of Mam's New Greenhouse.

The new greenhouse was delivered only three weeks after ordering so it was really good service by The Greenhouse People. However, we found that the instructions were really quite hard to understand. As with a lot of instructions the diagrams were quite basic, and though each piece was numbered it was difficult trying to work out which way was up, or which was the front or back of the various pieces. The written instructions were even worse: 'Attach thingamiwotsit to flibbertigibbet making sure that you don't forget the doofer' (honestly!!!).

Anyway, we managed it in the end - though it took us 12 HOURS to finish it! Actually, the instructions mentioned to leave a weekend to erect the greenhouse, so that was probably about right. We started at 9am and it took us til about 4pm to do the framework, so we just decided to carry on and get the glazing done that day too. Saturday was hot and sunny so were flagging a bit in the heat - and my legs are still aching two days later with all that bending. But it was well worth it. Mam is really pleased with her new toy and she thinks Dad would have loved it too. She's looking forward to putting her plants back in, once the new staging has been erected - another day!

Last week, when us girls were at the flower show, my brother-in-law lay some new paving to act as a nice level base for the new greenhouse.




The sides and roof were all put together separately and then attached to the base. Here's my sis and her hubby trying to work out the next bit - the glazing plan.



And here's the finished greenhouse. It's not far off the size of dad's old greenhouse - the same width but about three few feet shorter lengthways. Doesn't it look lovely? It doesn't have the character of the old one, but it will be safer and easier for mam to maintain in the future.

It was starting to get dark as we finished, so it was ideal timing really. Mam took this picture of her workers - look, we're STILL smiling!


Mam has spent a little while today getting her new greenhouse all spic and span - cleaning our mucky fingermarks off the glass, sweeping the flags, and putting 104 (she counted!) little black covers on the bolt heads. She's put a couple of her big tomato plants in already, and once the staging gets built she can move the bonsai plants into their new home too; and the downpipes need to be fitted for the water butts - and then we're done!! Mam did a disappearing act whenever the camera came out, but I'm sure I can sneak one of her when she moves all the plants back in...