Plastic bottle greenhouse

flutterbyuk25

Hello all

I don't normally venture onto this board. Not sure if my question is better here or on the Green & Ethical board. But I'll give it a whirl.

I work for a youth charity and part of what we do involves community work. I want my next group to build a plastic bottle greenhouse. I have narrowed my search down to 2 schools.

I have found a guide online and a colleague has built one before so will assist in the planning. The schools will provide the base and frame (hopefully the base at least will be in place when we arrive).

There will be approx 12 young people and 2/3 staff involved in the building of it.

How many days do you think I should allow for the construction? Working 10-4 with half hour break. But bear in mind that the young people are NEETs so may not be so willing to work as hard!!

Any other pointers?

Thanks in advance

auntymabel

http://www.harrowinleaf.org.uk/morenews.html

This a link If I've done it correctly) to an article about the bottle greenhouse built by Vaughan School in Harrow. (scroll about halfway down the page).

cajsa

Not much help with the question, but really impressed with the whole concept of this - perhaps i am just a middle aged geek but nevertheless :T:T:T:T:T:T

flutterbyuk25

cajsa wrote: »

Not much help with the question, but really impressed with the whole concept of this - perhaps i am just a middle aged geek but nevertheless :T:T:T:T:T:T

Thanks.

I really can't wait to build one, I think we will end up doing a few of them over the next few years for different schools/community groups. We want to build one for our new premises but we haven't got a move in date yet so I can't plan for it!!

cajsa

shame you are not further north nearer Manchester - would happily of placed you in touch with a number of schools including the one my wife teaches at - i am no eco warrior but just find this idea quite fun and one the kids could engage in

jamesingram

looks good , how about 2 days

ecgirl07

it takes as long as it takes to collect the bottles. it took us a primary school) about a month of serious collecting to get 12-1300 bottles.

it took my class about 4 x 2 hour periods to wash and cut the bottoms off the bottles and stack them on the canes. initially I pierced the bottom with a sharp pair of scissors allowing the kids to cut the bottles with class safety scissors, but some kids managed to pierce the bottles themselves thus speeding up the process and reducing the blister on my finger.

the frame was made by a parent over the course of two days with the help of his son and a few other pupils.

rum1

How is this type of greenhouse holding up when the wind blows big time

tattycath

Looks like a great idea.

Valli

There's a clip on BBC school featuring a bottle greenhouse here