All of my favourite client gardens have greenhouses. They’re incredibly useful and once you have one you’ll wonder how you ever managed without one. I haven’t met anyone who regrets getting one because they expand your use of the garden enormously. However people do give older ones away when they no longer garden as they used to, or decide to upgrade to a larger model. Do consider acquiring one if you have the space: I’ve installed two that have been given away for free and apart from some minor scrapes taking them down, moving them and then putting the glass back in, it’s the most cost effective way of getting your own.
There are lots of wonderful uses for a greenhouse which I won’t go into here, suffice to say the only limitation is your imagination. If you have a gardener, they should be maximising its use all year round. To help them do this, it’s important that you keep your greenhouse well maintained and tidy. Ensure that any broken or cracked panels of glass are replaced as a matter of urgency: broken glass that isn’t shatterproof is incredibly dangerous and not something you want falling into pots, plants or compost. I have replaced broken panes with bespoke-cut perspex panes and this has worked very well. A number of online retailers will cut perspex to the size you require and deliver quickly. Perspex panes are lighter and easier to install but can discolour over time. Any leaks in the structure need addressing: no-one wants to work underneath cold drips of water. Roof vents must be working properly and replacement parts are easy enough to obtain and install.
My personal bugbear is clients storing items in their greenhouse which should be stored elsewhere. As I gently try to remind them, greenhouses are not storage sheds so you need to ensure that things like tools, netting, boxes, rolls of chicken wire, rakes, chairs, individual gloves, unopened bags of compost, chemicals, and lawn seed are confined to either the potting shed, an outhouse or the garage. It’s a kindness to your gardener to tidy up after yourself if you've been working in your greenhouse: I don’t mind doing a quick tidy before I start doing something, but I will be mildly cursing you if I have to empty it of the junk you have dumped in it before I can get started. If you are going to use the greenhouse yourself and also expect your gardener to do the same, it’s well worth having a discussion about who works where so you’re not in each others way. Ideally you also need to decide on who primarily keeps it clean and tidy.
Any greenhouse needs to be a functional space which is fit for purpose at all times of the year. It will require some workbenches or staging for sowing seeds, potting on, etc. I prefer solid yet temporary types that can be installed as required and then removed for the summer months. They could be wooden or metal and handmade is ideal, if this can be arranged. In spring you’ll need plenty of space for storing trays of seedlings whilst in the summer you could remove the staging to have space to grow tomatoes. Ideally equip your greenhouse for your gardener with potting trays, capillary matting and a rubbish bin of some kind: I re-use old compost bags as they don’t take up much space and aren’t heavy enough to cause any damage if they get knocked into the glass panes (it happens). Put up some hooks if your greenhouse is wooden so that you can hang and dry flowers and herbs in warmer months.
The base of my own greenhouse is soil with a surface mulch of chipped bark. I laid a path of paving slabs down the centre which extends to the outside so that the doorway doesn’t get churned up and muddy. The earth floor means that I can plant directly into the ground and my tomatoes and cucumbers seem very happy with this arrangement during the summer: it’s much easier to keep soil moist than a grow bag. During the heatwave of 2022 I removed all of the glass panes from the greenhouse (apart from the roof) to keep it cool. This had the added benefit of allowing the plants inside to mingle with their neighbours on the outside, creating a sort of crazy jungle of plants. By autumn it was easy enough to gently push the encroachers back outside and replace the panes. My final tip would be to ensure that no-one ever spills grass seed inside the greenhouse: it’s nigh on impossible to remove completely and you may find yourself plucking at grass seedlings for many years to come.
