Allotment Week - Greenhouse - Part 4

Just the door left to do. And boy was it a pain. The instructions show how it should be assembled, but they are not completely without issue. For starters they say you should add the door stops when making the door. Just one problem? How or earth do you put the door on, when the door stops are designed to prevent you sliding the door past the door frame? No, it just doesn't work. I had to put the door on, then undo the bolts where the door stops are supposed to go and put them back in.

An additional problem was the padding which the glass is supposed to rest on inside the door braces. This kind of looks like the sort of draft excluder stuff you put round the outside of doors. Nice tough stuff. But it doesn't fit in the slots. There is a stiff plastic backing which is supposed to fit in the door slots, then the glass slot into that. But the plastic backing is too wide. In the end, I just had to rest the glass directly onto the metal. Not good when it comes to thermal expansion, so I left a few millimetres gap just to be safe.

Finally I made it though.

The more astute of you would have spotted a lack of an air vent at the top. Fear not. That will get added when I get a little spare time to rest my fingers.

After the final piece I thought I'd take a wander around the site in my capacity as a Committee members just to make sure everything is as it should be. I saw quite a few people on the other side (West side. I'm East side) and whilst chatting to them I was eagerly offer to show off a new bee and insect hotel. The lady who built it is also in charge of the bee hives that we have on the allotments. So she knows a thing or two about insects.

The carpet at the bottom is over a slatted board which houses a single slow worm (at present) and the shelves have a variety of habitats to help the various insects. The whole lot is sheltered between two dwarf apple trees.

I think I may have to copy this and build one on the East Side. After all, if we don't help the bees and insects, who is going to pollinate our plants?