Greenhouse site against fence - how close?

royg_2

Hi,

Hoping for some advice on how close I should plan my new greenhouse against a fence. Its going in a corner with 6ft high fence on the North and West sides.

Currently able to fit in a maximum size of 8ft x 10ft and have my eye on a tall sided polycarbonate one for just over £400.

Issue is that I've not really thought if having this close to the fence will be an issue and noted someone else saying wise to leave space for maintainance and cleaning. I do have a telescopic brush that could make this possible with a smallish gap.

A possible compromise might be to leave a gap on one side (say West as any move out from North will impact on gap I have between greenhouse and a 60cm high raised bed on the South side). Perhaps a small gap on the North side for the brush although not sure if this will just encourage muck and if against fence does it matter much?

Would appreciate any advice from those with a similar site.

thanks

sunlund2311

Hi royg
Just my opinion but i would have thought that you would need space on all sides to walk around comfortably. Not just the maintainance of the greenhouse you need to think about. The fence would need staining/ repairing etc in the future. Theres also the question of shading from a 6 foot fence, on the west side in particular ( if i've got my bearings right ?) in the evening cutting light a fair bit

laurel7172

People have lean-to greenhouses.

Yes, you'll lose some light, but I wouldn't stress too much about it.

You do need to think about maintaining the fence, though...

royg_2

Thanks for responses so far - never actually thought about maintenance of fence so at least could give it a fresh coat before I build.

The West side has buildings under 10m away which does tend to block out the late sun although any clearance from the fence would improve light at least some.

Currently swithering with leaving a gap on the West side that I can fit down or going right into the corner.

Cheers

savemoney

3 residents near me all have greenhouses near fences and no problems, I would leave a gap if it was me to get to fence, as long as you get some sun during day, remember sun rises in East and set in West, in Summer at dinner time its South and quite high in the sky.

smk77

Mine is in a corner less than a foot away from the fence. The greenhouse runs North - South. The North and East sides are next to the fence. It get a decent amount of sun from about 10am until about 8pm in the middle of the summer.

rabidbun

Mine is in a corner but I have left around 14 inches between it and the fence. It lets me paint it (and weed when necessary), and also lets me fit tubs around the back to grow in. Grew some tatties this way last year and worked a treat (watered with a long stem watering can to reach over the pots).

Primrose

I'd leave a gap between greenhouse and fence that is wider than you need to walk around. Dont forget that from time to time you will need to crouch down to stain lower parts of the fence, or bend down to do maintenance work on the lower parts of your greenhouse.

The space taken by a bending down person is more than twice the space needed for a person in the upright position (mark it out with your back to the chosen fence and then you'll get an idea how far away the greenhouse sensibly needs to be for carrying out all those awkward jobs which will occur when the fence gets broken, or a window pane gets smashed. Finding you haven't got enough space to do those jobs when they inevitably occur will be hugely frustrating. Perhaps your neighbours haven't come across that problem yet, but I'm sure they will eventually, and if they can't get round their greenhouses easily, they'll be in difficulties.

bordercars

im just about to put mine against a fence, its my neighbours fence. falling apart, so i have replaced 3 panels and posts where i intend GH to be, what suggestions as to treating it now on my side for the very long term, will probaly never get done again as its never been done in the 7 years we have been here.