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Locating a greenhouse
Carla8
Posts: 6
Hi, I’m in the process of locating my new greenhouse. I’ve got a good east to west site, on the sunniest boundary line. Near the house so ok for water and electric. But, it won’t get sun past 4pm in the summer, is that ok? I’m new to greenhousing, loved the very broken one I adopted (in the picture before I showed the garden rather more TLC), when I bought this house, so looking forward to my new larger one! Just don’t want to make a location mistake! We’ve added an extension 4m nearer to this old one. It will not be in the shade but won’t feel as open as this did. What do you think? Thanks clever peeps.
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Posts
After that, light is what you need most, rather than sunlight, necessarily. Deep shade isn't good, but partial shade is workable. Sun in the morning is generally better than in the evening - it helps to warm it up quickly when it's coolest. In a hot summer, losing direct sun after 4 pm is probably a good thing to avoid it overheating as much. But in the winter you may find it gets very cold in there by morning. It doesn't really matter if it's not perfect - you may find you need to amend how you use it is all. Possibly your season will be a tad shorter than it was. Possibly you'll find that introducing some 'thermal mass' (paving slabs on the floor, for example) which will warm up while the sun's on them and then stay warm after the sun's gone over. Probably you'll find cucumbers do better and tomatoes not so well unless we get a very sunny year.
“It's still magic even if you know how it's done.”
I'd go for more sun, and add shading. You can add shading, you can never add sun.
I have also added a wind break on the west side as number of people had suggested this and we do get the odd force ten gale here on the coast.
It will also depend on what you want to use it for and how long just the summer months or all year?
"You don't stop gardening because you get old, you get old because you stop gardening." - The Hampshire Hog
It's cold no heating or electric so some seeds I will start at home and move on here once they get going.
As for losing the sun late in the day I would not worry to much as raisingirl said it is probably a good thing to avoid it overheating it is amazing how little sun you need to raise the temperature one real investment I would suggest is a good min/max thermometer and hang in the middle about six to nine inches from the roof in free air.
"You don't stop gardening because you get old, you get old because you stop gardening." - The Hampshire Hog