We’re not in Kansas any more, Toto
October 20, 2008
Despite many years of physics education, I feel beaten by two principles of the physical world: (i) the higher the centre of gravity of an object, the easier something will fall over and (ii) a force is proportional to the area to which it is applied. Last Saturday night (possibly Sunday morning, it was a lazy one) the greenhouse became the object in question, the force was the wind and the area to which it was applied was the greenhouse plastic cover. The result was herb carnage:
Pretty much all of the soil and plants had found their way out of the pots. I have since put it all back together again, as much as a plant jigsaw can be put back together. I reconstructed the greenhouse and migrated it to a (hopefully) more sheltered part of the balcony, the north western corner. At the sacrifice of a bit of sunshine, I have moved some of the heavier pots to the bottom to lower the centre of gravity a bit.
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I have had loads of these greenhouses blow over on me – it’s very windy in Mullingar (but also on balconies, I guess) tying it to something at the back, and putting bricks in the bottom shelves stabilises them somewhat, but you can never be certain. And it’s such a horrible thing to discover, and try to fix. Good luck for the winter!
Yes I can safely say I am definitely in the market for some cheap and cheerful stones/bricks/cannonballs/old-fashioned irons/oversized novelty paperweights – I’m not fussy!
Hi – I have tagged you from annapaints.blogspot.com. Good luck with the wind!
Hey i have a grow bag on the bottom shelf of mine, that seems to do a great job. Especially since i live on the estuary in Cork and it is very windy most days!
I guess any heavy weight on the bottom should do the trick!
[...] The greenhouse is very flimsy so I have my fingers crossed as to its durability. Putting the heavy deep containers on the bottom shelf at least add stability and prevent a high centre of gravity-related disaster. [...]