Bricks or growbag

Ok, As you know, my greenhouse is now up :thumb:
However, It is on a slab base, so my question is, should I build a brick structure on both sides (like a trough) to hold the soil in order to plant my goodies in or should I just use growbags?

What are the advantages/disadvantages etc.
Is there another way of doing it that I havn't thought of?

Items I will be planting include but not limited to...... Tomotoes, Lettuce, Cabbage, Leeks, Maybe onions, asparagus, raddish etc

 

If it were me, grow bags. Keeping the balance of moisture and nutrients in the former option would be quite hard. Grow bags tend to keep the roots nice and warm too. I don't know how some of the veg you have listed would get on though ? Is the earth underneath completely inaccessible ?

 

Hi Snappers, do you not have room to build a raised bed outside your greenhouse? I think building one inside would be too messy on a hard base, ie when watering, compost coming out the bottom, i know it doesen't seem that bad but having to sweep and clean your GH every day is a pain, so id say Growbags :thumb: just one more thing, where's the pics :wink:

 

I agree with growbags, or, better still, Westland Planters.:thumb:

 

Containers of somekind, not necessarily grow bags, which hot up very quickly and dry out very quickly.

 

You could make yourself a hammock bed for each side and empty the growbags into them.
Simple and inexpensive plus they can be as deep as you want. Mine holds about 240L of compost and has been stood outside for the last 2 or 3 years.
No problems with water or compost getting everywhere, any water runoff can be collected and recycled.

 

Have u got any pics Hex?

 

I don't like growbags - hard to get, and keep, the moisture level right - often resulting in split tomatoes etc. However, others have good success with them. Watering beds is much easier as they provide a "reservoir" so cope better if the watering is less regular

If you can make enough compost, yourself, to fill the raised-beds in one year (including manure / leaf mould etc. that you may have access too) I would be inclined to make the raised beds, put your compost into them in year one, and then in year two move that compost to a mulch on the veg. patch, and replace with freshly made compost.

The raised beds will decrease the growing height you have (to the roof of the greenhouse), so worth keeping in mind the blaance between a decent depth of soil for plants to grow, and Tomatoes / Cucmubers etc. having enough height.

 

Hi LMRR
Here`s a few pics to give you a general idea of what it is and what it does :wink:
I built it from materials i had laying around so it cost nothing but it would be very easy to make a cosmetically pretty one. It was sat outside without any cover during the monsoon summer we had and still turned into a jungle. Hopefully the pics will appear

 

Thanks all for the replies. Hmmm interesting. The reasons for the planting in the greenhouse is because that's the only space I have really. Not sure exactly yet what I am going to grow yet. I will have a look for some good sized containers which I could use in there. What are westland planters?

 

Snappers just realise that you mentioned Asparagus. This needs a permanent bed all to itself. So should go outside, it needs to establish for 2 to 3 years before you can harvest it, assuming you are growing from plants. If growing from seed, it will be about 7 years before you harvest.

 

Wow, Didnt realise that! Maybe, I will give the asparagus a miss then. It's a shame as I really like the stuff, but I dont really have the space to dedicate purly for one crop in 2-3 years!

Thanks for the advice.

 

Snappers, once it starts cropping, it will crop every year. You don`t dig the plant up to harvest it, you cut the stems. Each year the root system will grow giving you a bigger crop.:thumb:

 

Thanks David,
I may look at it next year but I will need to clear a bed for it. How much room would you say it would need?