A Greenhouse Reborn (x2)

Way back in 2011 we bought a greenhouse on Ebay which was intended to go up in our working area. Well finally this one has been built!

It has been built on a wall one concrete block tall (22.5cm / 9") tall. Whilst this is not a very high wall it does help give that extra head height in the greenhouse that will make quite a lot of difference to how useful and usable the space actually is.

This greenhouse is roughly 8'x10' and will be used to grow plants on as well as over winter them in the colder months, kept frost free with a small heater and lots of bubble insulation.

Some of the glass itself still needs to be put in, and I'll aim to finish that off over the next couple of days. However it will get a good scrub first to remove any of the old grime and dirt it had accumulated.

Outside we laid a small area of paving slabs, this will also be used to store plants, having a small space for all those plants in waiting should help keep the rest of the garden tidy.

The next project is the smaller greenhouse we moved last weekend, I have mentioned before that this one will be home to a small quarantine tank with a separate filtration system. Housing this in its own space keeps the fish, water and filtration completely separate and independent from the rest of the fish and ponds reducing any risk of cross contamination in the event of a problem with a fish.

As with much of what we do I plan out our intentions, firstly to make sure i know what I am doing but also it helps me explain my plans to Mark so we can agree on any changes or amendments needed. and the quarantine pond is no exception:

This is roughly what we are thinking, the image on the left is a cross section through the pond. This will be sunk slightly into the ground and then built up. The greenhouse itself will be raised up on blocks to give a more head height and space.

A filter (the blue box in the diagram) will be pump fed (the grey blob) and be housed on shelving over the pond. The idea is to keep the use of space as efficiently as possible whilst still getting a good volume of water in the pond itself. In the main koi pond the pond pump is fitted dry in-line with the pipework, however this one will have a submersible pond pump. The key requirement will be efficiency, and some of the new generation of pond pumps are far more efficient than they used to be, having a much lower power requirement than those of the past. On the main koi pond we opted for new "eco" pumps, although with the rate of change in technology there are now even more efficient pumps available.

The plan, as you can see from the second image the pond will take up about half of the floor space in this greenhouse (total size 8'x6')

With any luck we will get the base done for this greenhouse this coming weekend and can then fit the tank etc later this month.

Gaz

Posted in: Greenhouse , Working Area