Thursday 27 August 2015

Phase two and three of 'Project Greenhouse' complete.


Bloody hell it's been a long time since my last blogpost. I could give some lame excuse like 'I needed time to find myself again'. I was there in the bathroom mirror. No, the truth be told I just got lazy. So, apologies aside, I actually have been quite the opposite of lazy. Weeding, watering and harvesting at least twice a week. I have, as the title indicates, made progress on Project Greenhouse. As you can see in the above photo, there it is leaning against the plum trees. A friend at work, his father-in-law past away, he was a very keen gardener and the family wanted his gardening tools and equipment to go to people who would put them to good use. So I'm hoping that I can do it justice.

My friend did ask for £40 for the greenhouse, but I haven't quite got the hang haggling and gave him £50. I have been on the look out on the web and have seen that £50 was a fairer price, also I would have to see him every day at work and I'm a good catholic boy.



It really didn't take that long to dismantle it, yes a few panes of glass were broken, but that wasn't an issue, if only I had measured the dimensions of the two courses of bricks that the greenhouse sits on. I do have some brick on my plot, but needed more. I managed to get some more by jumping in a skip, with permission. I'm not in the building trade, so this was my first time brick laying. I did Google what to do and how to get the morter mix right. I measured the frame as best as I could in it's dismantled state. All seemed great, I even had a friend, who has a plot on the site and who does know how to lay bricks, who came over for a chat and layed a few brick as quickly as clicking Lego together. A week later, with help from another work mate, we put the frame together, put it on the bricks and it was then that I found out that my measurements were wrong. It was too short by width and length. It's a good job that I still have a few more bricks to do another course, offset slightly on both sides and a whole brick width at the back. Now if you know the difference between 'Jerry built' and 'Safe as houses', please don't look too closely at my handy work in the photos. Until now, there was more chance of me laying an egg than a brick.




This is how it's been left. I'm hoping to get the thing in place this weekend so I can concentrate on gardening rather than being an extra for the next series of 'Auf wiedersehen Pet'. Till next time (let's hope it's not too long away) and thanks for reading.



2 comments:

  1. I admire your attitude! I imagine that bricklaying is a lot more difficult than it looks. If it had been me, I would have paid someone to do it for me. Hope the greenhouse goes on to produce lots of lovely tomatoes and cucumbers for you.

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  2. Now that you've got the hang of laying a course of bricks, isn't it time you at least attempted lay to an egg?

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