After 6 years, metres of duct tape, 4 replacement roof panels, countless replacement bolts, and a lot of chasing random sheets of plastic about in the wind…  we have finally replaced our little polycarbonate greenhouse with a nice, shiny, new rhino. This time it’s a traditional glass one, with toughened safety glass and it’s not boring aluminium, it’s GREEN!!!!! I am so excited.

Our old, polycarbonate one did us well. It was our first proper greenhouse, so we didn’t want to fork out a huge amount of money to discover that we really weren’t into the greenhouse gardening thing, the cheaper option was a good starting point. And let’s be honest, it was a step up from my very first (pretend) greenhouse, which was a tiny plastic thing on my balcony. As you can imagine, I didn’t get many tomatoes… well any!  God, it’s a wonder I even gave things another try really.

As you’ve seen over the years, the polycarbonate greenhouse did a damn good job, giving us huge harvests of tomatoes and peppers (she was a bit of a youtube star) as well as herbs but it didn’t stand up well to the crazy winds we get here in East Lothian and we were continuously making repairs and chasing bits of polycarbonate around our neighbourhood in a storm. So after the last storm, we decided it was time for her to retire (we lost most of the roof).

Although she did sport some glamorous hedgehog duct tape for a while (thanks Kirsty).

We’ve decided this time as well, to have a proper installer come and build it. Kate and I did it ourselves last time and although it wasn’t horrendous, we’ve decided we wanted to start off on the right foot, have the greenhouse properly put together so that it will last us many years to come. And lets face it, this thing wasn’t cheap, so having a proper installer put it together doesn’t seem like a crazy expense does it?

So as we mentioned, we’ve gone with Rhino, a British made greenhouse that is advertised specifically as being crazy strong and capable of standing up to incredible winds. It also has a 25 year guarantee. I’d say that is money well spent.

We’ve chosen this specific greenhouse after months of research, we really wanted something strong, durable and something which is going to last. We weren’t focussing on all the different asthetic designs as we are happy with the look of our other greenhouse. But I don’t want to be lying awake at night listening to the wind and worrying anymore.

Another thought had been, do we want to take this opportunity to get a bigger greenhouse, and it was a tempting thought as I do a lot of seasonal shoogling to make things work in my greenhouse. I have different needs for spring as i do the rest of the year, but we decided that as we use the garden for a few different purposes, we didn’t want to sacrifice any more space when I had pretty much got my greenhouse routine down. So we’ve stuck with an 8 by 6ft.

So… I guess you are all saying – “come on Eli, shut up with the rambling and introduce us to Olive” (that’s what I’m naming her).

See the new greenhouse and it being installed…