Going Undercover: Part One

Due to our being continually thwarted by the good old British weather our greenhouse plans have been turbo charged and it's been all systems go at the minion household! Of course, it wasn't as easy as just popping down our local supplier, picking a greenhouse we like the look of...... and Bob's your uncle. No, there has been a lot to consider and a LOT of prep work, some of which has already been documented here. But after choosing a location and clearing the area...it was time to SHOP! We started by checking out a good sturdy modern aluminium design on www.greenhousesdirect.co.uk which is a company reasonably local to us. The Rhino caught our eye.

The Rhino

These greenhouses are tough and long lasting and you don't even have to have a concrete base. They can sit right onto levelled soil. This was the sensible choice, practical, durable, by far where the smart money would go.......and that's why we opted for this:

The Swallow Kingfisher

What can we say, we went with our hearts.....you see, we want our greenhouse to not only be a place to hide when the heaven's have opened but to also be a thing of beauty that adds to the view from our living room window...and let's face it, the Swallow Kingfisher is sooo pretty :-).

The upshot of this choice meant we needed a good solid base. So, it was time to lay a patio. We enlisted the help of our long-suffering friend Christine H and Minion 1 was called back from University for the weekend...we needed a full minion mobilisation.  Charlie went to a local builder's merchant with the stats of the base and they were very helpful. He returned with an order of hardcore, sharp sand, cement and patio slabs. We also hired a thump thump machine (I'm sure that's the technical term for them) and a cement mixer to make life a little easier. Sounds pretty straightforward huh. Yeah right. It was a really hard couple of days. Here's how it went......

Charlie's wooden frame for the base

Christine and I do battle with the last beech tree stump. It took us about 40 minutes to shift it!

Minion 1 and Chris then did battle with a couple of hundred roots!
and 15 wheelbarrow loads of heavy clay soil.

Chris was very grateful for 'Foreman' Charlies advice and guidance 'ahem!'.

Minion 5 lends a hand shifting hardcore. 

Kate has a quick, supervised go on the thumpy thumpy machine. 

Charlie lays the slabs on a sharp sand and cement mix 10:1 if you're interested.
He also found these great spacers to help him put even gaps between the slabs.

Chris takes a moment to wonder if our friendship is worth it :-)

We did feed poor Chris after this...and we gave her alcohol!

Voila...One Greenhouse base ready for action.

 We were all very sore after two days of hard slogging but it's going to be worth it when our beautiful greenhouse arrives. The order is in now....watch this space for Part Two.