The Greenhouse Arrives

Having taken advantage of a few days hanging over from the trip abroad, it was time to prepare the base. This entailed the taking down of the old shed in the backgarden that faces everyone who leaves by the back door. This shed is forty years old and in almost perfect condition. How do we know it was forty years old ? Well, underneath the old brown lino (real linoleum, the oily stuff backed with hessian ) were layers of Scottish Daily Express from 1967. Bob Dylan, the Stones and Beatles were all in the charts.

This shed was built in five sections and the roof was in two parts. Four coach bolts at each end kept the five parts together and another two at each end kept the two roof parts anchored down. Wooden apex gusset plates kept the roof straight and tight. Only about four 4 inch nails were used in the construction and this building had stood there for forty years. A pity that it had to go. But not to the dump. It is being transported up to the allotment to enable Gary, Jane and Anna to replace their old and rotting construction to be replaced.

The space was now clear to enable the base to be layed. A trip down to the local builders yard and a request for advice on estimating materials resulted in a ton of sharp sand and grit (otherwise known as whin dust in Scotland ) and twenty 900 x 600 2inch thick paving slabs. Concern was expressed by my neighbour when I returned with the news of this order. Discussion then progressed upon the wisdom of my act, made in the confident belief that it would be the fastest and easiest solution to make a level base.

The lorry arrived on Thursday afternoon and I was left high and dry with this Herculean task of bringing everything throught the back gate and into its location. As it happened another neighbour had a tradesman in doing some central heating installation and there in the front garden was a two wheel trolley. A quick word with the plumbing man and the twenty slabs were quickly wheeled throught to the back with the loan of the trolley. Just then, another lorry turned up from Rugby in England with the greenhouse. It was all happening at once and it was all feeling a bit too much. Anyway, one step at a time and think logically about this. Friday morning and team Gnome emptied the one ton bag of its contents taking about twenty wheelbarrow loads to do this. By Saturday all the slabs were laid. This was hard work. Walking and laying such a large slab was backbreaking work and soul destroying when we realised that as we dropped each slab into place there was always a corner or end that was slightly off. This entailed using a pick axe to lever the stone up and packing more material underneath. However we got there in the end and were quite proud of the results.

Next, the greenhouse. But that is another instalment.