CONSERVATORIES, GREENHOUSES, VINERIES AND FRUIT HOUSES. 



Paving. 



Soil beds. 



Opening 

 gear. 



Pits and 

 frames. 



Design of 



potting 



shed. 



Heating 

 chamber. 



The best pavement for almost any glasshouse is formed of Yorkshire flags, " quarries " 

 or red tiles already advocated for conservatories. Brick on edge laid in cement or sand 

 can also be used where really hard and virtreous stocks of a nice warm colour can be 

 obtained. Cement floors or wood gratings are apt to get rather mossy and slippery. 



In a large plant house or conservatory, soil beds are often formed in the centre of 

 the paving. These beds should be edged preferably with stone edging like that shown in 

 illustration No. 306 for outside flower beds, but bricks or terra cotta moulded to a 

 simple pattern may be used. Whatever the material adopted the moulding should be 

 simple and unobtrusive and sufficiently high to retain the soil some four or six inches 

 above the floor level, well fixed in position by cement or dowels on a concrete or brick 

 foundation. Where required, the kerb may be of a pattern into which the standards 

 for the staging may be fixed. 



There is one constructional item omitted from the sections for the sake of clearness. 

 This is the opening gear by means of which the whole of a series of ventilating lights 

 are opened at one operation. Generally speaking, the top ventilators, i.e., those in the 

 roof, are opened by revolving gearing operated by a crank fixed to the back wall or the 

 end framing in a convenient position, while the front lights are moved by a simple 

 lever. The latter are often a heavy load to raise all at once if hung from the top 

 edge, but by hanging them on pivot hinges about two-thirds of the way up the 

 framing, so that the top edge of the frame drops inwards as the bottom edge rises, 

 they can be opened and closed with ease. 



Whether the range of glasshouses is large or small, it is usually necessary to have 

 a few good pits and frames. The difference between these is that, whereas the former 

 have brick sides and are fixtures, the latter are made entirely of wood and are usually 

 portable. They may be so planned and placed as to form an integral portion of the 

 design for the range of glass and may be heated by, say, one three-inch radiating pipe 

 run all round each in order to keep out the frost. The point most often neglected in 

 their construction is the efficient exclusion of rain-water along the ridge where the two 

 removable lights meet. The capping to do this needs a little ingenuity in its arrangement 

 to prevent its coming in the way when the lights are turned back, but there are several 

 good contrivances on the market to effect this. 



We have already spoken of the placing of the potting shed. Its interior fittings 

 usually consist of a broad bench with bins below to hold various composts, sand, loam, 

 etc., and a little hob grate with a small oven in which occasional labourers may 

 warm their food. In other cases the shed is comfortably heated by means of a small 

 radiator connected to the heating apparatus. The floor should be of solid concrete 

 as the fumes from the heating chamber below would otherwise make the interior 

 unbearable, and, in building it, pieces of wood four and a half inches broad and three 

 inches thick, should be built into the walls on the inside about five feet six inches 

 from the floor, to fix hooks, drive nails, or screw shelves to. 



The heating chamber must be of ample size to allow the person stoking the fire to 

 use his long stoking irons, and iron brackets to hold the latter are fixed to the wall. 

 There must also be a recess for fuel conveniently placed for stoking and with a shoot 

 above. Probably the ideal arrangement would be two separate shoots, one for coal 

 and one for coke, but only one is usual. 



The doors from the potting shed and heating chamber should open on the space 

 at the back of the wall which supports the lean-to houses, and this is a convenient 

 place for the provision of a piece of open ground for storing composts, turf, leaf mould, 

 flower pots, barrows, tools, etc., and for the latter and lawn mowers, a shed may be 

 built against the high brick walls. Ready access by carts bringing fuel, manure, etc., 

 is of course a sine qua non. 



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