How to design and plant a greenhouse

[@rpark8265]

Hi Steve I recently found your channel and through the links all your information.The amount of knowledge and the presentation is the best I’ve found . Thanks very much for putting the time and effort in. Best wishes Richard

[@SteveRichards]

Thanks Richard, it's been a nice little hobby for me putting the info together on rainy winter days : All the best - Steve

[@Familygarden88]

Absolutely stunning setup, very inspiring. Your videos always inspire me. I hope to get some grow lights and heaters for my GH

[@SteveRichards]

Really opens up new opportunities when you can control heat and light : All the best - Steve

[@067captain]

Fascinating episode, thanks for posting. Particularly like the idea of the bench that doubles up as a dining table. May well pinch that idea in the future.

[@kerryl4031]

Blimey Steve, wow! Awesome.

[@kgarden8960]

Very informative, as always, thanks you. Always impressed with how well thought through (maybe just "matured"?!) your processes are, and I've helped myself to several. I've gone down a rather different route as I am fortunate to have plenty of space. Original was a 10' x 12' greenhouse (off eBay for £100-or-so, some effort in take-down + rebuild). That was relegated to Propagation House after I bought a 10' x 30' for Cropping - another £100-ish on eBay. I am time-limited, and was invariably frustrated by poor spring sunlight and temperatures, the weather raining on the rare occasions when I had time available, and whenever the late night forecast predicted in April and May I would have to go out and find enough grass clippings and with a torch in my mouth put them over my potatoes. So ... a commercial greenhouse came up on eBay for £1,000-ish (less than the new-cost of most amateur greenhouses, but a lot more take-down an rebuild!). Its 500 sq.m. - about the size of 2 allotments - and now all my veg and cut flowers are "indoors". No longer have to worry about late frosts, and also don't have to worry about overheating in Summer (compared to my previous domestic-sized greenhouses) the double row of end-to-end vents, cranked wide open, mean that temperature's are barely above outdoor (which may be hot, in summer, but not killer-hot), and I very rarely open the end doors for through-draught because that is rarely necessary (and I prefer convection air movement, which I think stresses the plants less). I have put my grow lights in the boiler room on chrome shop-shelving, on castors. Nice and warm, light is guaranteed same each Spring, and I grow same-formula / plant count each year, and (for me) more effective than when I used to heat a greenhouse for Spring plant raising. When I had a fan heater in the greenhouse I found the thermostat was cheap-and-lousy (like yours) and hysteresis was huge, so I bought a much more sensitive greenhouse thermostat (its got a 13AMP socket on it) and plugged the heater into that, and set it to HIGH (Greenhouse People have them: "BIO GREEN THERMOSTAT THERMO 2")

[@SteveRichards]

You're not kidding when you say you have a lot of space! I don't know how you cope with all of that while also being time limited. Just my little allotment and garden take me 10 hours a week and that's my limit for gardening time. I did look at those thermostats but the cost was about 2 years running cost for the heater (£80 I think) and so I stuck with the built in one, but I have two thermometers in there and they only show a 1 degree variance in temperature due to the heater thermostat cycling, which is nothing when compared to day time temp variance. I have indoor grow lights too, but both have their place, I prefer to have mature plants in the greenhouse and seedlings in the house. : All the best - Steve

[@kgarden8960]

@@SteveRichards I think its less work than when it was outdoors, because when I have time available I don't have to compete with the weather (very heavy soil here, which is hard work when wet). Probably some other benefits too? Maybe less weed seed and critters blowing in. But the rats love it, so I have to grow my potatoes in Long Tom pots indoors, and then plant out; if I just plant tubers they get eaten (or stolen!). I allocate time, this time of the year, to raise plants and then, rest of the year, its mostly just harvest. No-dig, leaky-hose irrigation, and a good mulch so little weeding, thus low effort once planted. Plants in 9cm pots, which neatly matches my bulb planter for planting holes. Yes, those thermostats are expensive, and sounds like yours performs much better than mine did. Good point about seedlings indoors and move them to greenhouse once plants. My Tomato plants become very unwieldy if kept indoors if the spring is long, and cold

[@SteveRichards]

@kgarden8960 they replaced the thermostat type used in that heater last year

[@SteveRichards]

Now I've seen your blog post on the greenhouse I can see how it would be less work and it is a really wonderful space. As I mentioned in the video that was my vision for the garden, a big central greenhouse, which would have been the size of a small allotment plot, but I'm happy with this compromise : All the best - Steve

[@amandamurray693]

My dream set up! Absolutely fantastic and so inspiring.

[@bernadette6211]

5 star greenhouse, absolutely fabulous. A space to enjoy for the years to come.

[@SteveRichards]

Thanks Bernadette, I'm very pleased with it. I get easily bored doing the same thing year after year and so the greenhouse opens up so many opportunities to try new things and to further help with winter seasonal affective disorder : All the best - Steve

[@theharms1037]

What a fantastic and beautiful Greenhouse, well thought out and to use it for family gatherings! A great episode.

[@SteveRichards]

Thanks, it's a great space

[@dn744]

Yes, if you want something, it may aswell be something you like visually 😊

[@SteveRichards]

yes, especially as I spend quite a few hours each day sitting in the conservatory and looking out at the garden, even more time in winter, so having a good lighting design makes a big difference then : All the best - Steve

[@myrustygarden]

I absolutely love your garden and I’d never leave 😂😂 if it was mine. You have done a fantastic job over the years both there and at the allotment, great job Steve 👍, Ali 🌤️🌧️🇨🇦

[@SteveRichards]

Thanks, I'm too much of a cyclist/hiker to stay home for long, but when I am here I love it. I'm just spring cleaning the house though, so I'm here more than usual at the moment : All the best - Steve

[@psisky]

That's an excellent set up. The whole thing. I have a polycrub and desperately need to work out more ventilation. My plants are in the ground put I think I'd like to go back to a hard floor and pots like I had in my old greenhouse. Do you remember the dimensions of your benches and table? Height and depth would be helpful to me as a starting point for my new plans.

[@SteveRichards]

I will get the dimensions later on, when I get home, but yes ventilation is a huge issue, for pest, temperature and humidity management : All the best - Steve

[@helengauperaa4319]

This was a super useful video Steve :) I wish I'd seen something like this two years ago before I built mine, there are a lot of features I'd like to have/would change if I did it again. If you didn't have your polytunnel, how do you think you'd use the greenhouse? Would it be much different? And do you have a longer vid for your trestle table build? Thank you so much for putting this video out!

[@SteveRichards]

I don't think it would be that much different. I mainly use the polytunnel in summer for tomatoes and if I didn't have a tunnel I'd just grow more of them outside (I grow about 50% outside now) beyond summer I don't think the greenhouse and the tunnel overlap much, as I'm using the greenhouse for things that benefit from heat and light and using the tunnel for things that don't need either. I've not done a video on the trestle table design yet. I might do it in summer, if I get chance to take the table and benches out of the greenhouse to get them painted with preservative : All the best - Steve

[@Anita6687]

The greenhouse is great, you’ve made it versatile to use in the winter months which is nice to have. I’d love a green house of that size. I wondered about the tiles you have in the centre path, where did you purchase them from please, thanks.

[@SteveRichards]

Someone gave them to us, they were from one of those discount gardening shops, but they don't remember the name of it unfortunately : All the best - Steve

[@SteveRichards]

Hi Anita, I had a quick look on Amazon and I found these, which are a close match www.amazon.co.uk/Vanilla-Leisure-Interlocking-Cushioned-Flooring/dp/B0B88V98M2/ref=sr_1_9?crid=252DSWM66L3ZH&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.zfY2_dFedTZpAyPPyfS235YepyEl5C5SU_gGVcH4Xvek8G44N7Yt4laWhLdeG5wRWJwsJbXyvXfYOUU6i1Rb-4QreQ9kjv0I5U-VUpgHOgF91As9FWjAee4dDv2ewzwOjnLoCzsV00YIU52JHxUiCybrmGYCbx5ngQAGQ3PakYAJXDe6z_HWjiuC2DRAzmgre3-L33VH2PYoo3YNcKpFR-a2XqcJeuoen6g9F5n2BsXFB6PthohzCpk4URKsjKp4VZMUUNiTBJWqQQR553TUcJSRxHUG-P2FtTrXcyGLbko.9ihogsVLd-ZO4h_gJow-Xl8rq8S4Np6Pn1m77-jKviY&dib_tag=se&keywords=large+foam+interlocking+tiles&qid=1715411043&sprefix=large+foam+interlocking+tiles%2Caps%2C524&sr=8-9

[@Anita6687]

Thanks very much for taking time out and looking for them for me, much appreciated.

[@chrisrogers9819]

Hi Steve did you build the greenhouse yourself? Its very good your plants look so good well donne

[@SteveRichards]

I didn't Chris, I'm not good with fiddly jobs and I have aphantasia, so I can't visualise how to put things together very well. A pro greenhouse installer does the job so quickly and cheaply as well, my installer charged about 1/3 of my hourly rate! : All the best - Steve

[@NM-qc2dh]

Everything looks to be in pots. I think being able to plant into the ground in a greenhouse is a lovely thing. I thought that was the whole point of a greenhouse. Putting all those hanging baskets up blocks some of the light.

[@SteveRichards]

Not at all, why would you think that? pots are wonderfully flexible, I have a big polytunnel and that’s 90% planted in the ground, but obviously not as flexible and much more prone to problems with disease build up, excessive salt build up and pest build up in the soil. Light isn’t an issue now there’s more than enough in a sunny greenhouse : all the best - Steve

[@katiesvegpatch]

@@SteveRichardsI was really pleased when I saw you’d gone for hardstanding because I had no choice with mine and had been worried about it. But I agree - turns out pots are really flexible.

[@SteveRichards]

I always think of my polytunnel and greenhouse as a conveyor belt, ideally plants throw through it, they don't stay in it. I make some exceptions to that, but only for the highest value crops : All the best - Steve

[@TAMSTERMAN]

Letting the kids dictate where the greenhouse goes is like telling Messi he has to play for Blackpool or Ian Mckellen to play Buttons😂😂 .you’re a good man👍Genius with the family table setup. How inclusive 👍

[@SteveRichards]

I'm a family man before I'm a gardener : All the best - Steve

[@glenjones8888]

Hi Steve, lovely greenhouse .I’m thinking of getting one ,should the long side face north/ south or east/west or does it really not matter.thanks

[@SteveRichards]

I think it’s more important to orient it in such a way as to fit into your garden, my greenhouse and poly are at 90 degree to each other and they both seem fine. If anything I’d say east west is best, gets better light in winter and in summer offers a bit of shade.