At the time the site was an empty field within spitting distance of the Atlantic, so I decided to build a substantial portion of it below ground level, sort of hunkered down against the stormy winter weather ... which worked out very well.
The problem turned out to be all my own fault; firstly I made it out of timber I bought at a local auction, which of course was reject wood that nobody else wanted, and secondly, I was in such a hurry to start using it that it barely got a lick of paint.
But it lasted for about 14 years before ending up looking like this ..... This was after I had salvaged most of the glass, but a sorry sight.
That was last February (2009) and I thought I would take my time and rebuild it over the summer months so that it would be ready for this year. I didn't reckon on the summer being so wet that I couldn't do anything much until November when I got the structure built and painted ... and not until this February that I managed to almost finish it. Should have taken me about a month, not a whole B** year!
Anyway, this time the timber was building grade and each piece was given two coats of wood preservative, then a coat of primer, then undercoat and a good thick gloss top coat.
Now it looks like this ..... Still not totally finished, the ventilator flaps need a couple of coats of paint, but it's nearly there.
It's about 20 feet by 12 feet and the inside floor level is about 5 feet below ground level and that works really well as the surrounding soil acts as a faily efficient insulator to such an extent that it has never been heated but the temperature has never dropped below freezing inside.
The inside looks like this ..... The back bed is about 4 feet wide and there used to be a similar one in the front, but I dug that one out as I intend to make the front half all hydroponic.
I ran out of time on that, so this year it will be full of grow bags and containers
After using it for the last umpteen years it was sorely missed last year, but now I have it back to (or exceeding) it's former glory and I'm as happy as a pig in whatsit.
