securing your plastic (PVC) greenhouse

[albert onglebod]

We bought 2 of these last Autumn and they have so far (tempting fate) been firmly holding fast to the ground.
I noticed one or two people saying theirs blew away and thought maybe it was the way they used the pegs that come with the greenhouses(they look like metal skewers).
Having been camping a good many times ,I realised when errecting ours,that the pegs should go in at opposite angles as you work your way around the frame,so when putting the frame together,make sure you twist the bottom 'rungs' ,making the holes of each adjoining bit face the other way.Then when your whole frame is assembled and pushed tightly together (or the cover will be too tight) ram in the pegs at about 45 degrees from the ground. Ours also came with guy ropes which tie to loops made in the seam material of the cover.One in each top corner.These need to be fixed out at an angle too,leaning away from the corners so when the wind pulls the cover towards one corner,it is pulling against the angle of the peg rather than just drawing it out of the earth.
Sadly I did tear one of mine when first putting it together as I forgot to tighten the frame up before getting the cover on,so when I zipped up the door ,it was too small. I got some repair tape from Maplins and stuck it up the torn side,then sewed through the seam of the door and the tape.Its holding up okay,so far.

[Millymollymandy]

Yeah, mine lasted a week! I now have a mini greenhouse type of thing, like a large cold frame in the shape of a greenhouse. That came with the same silly skewers and even those move out of the ground too! Then rain collects on the top bit (flat, good design, NOT!) which I have to get rid of. But hey, it only cost about €15 and it's just for a few months to encourage some early salad stuff then I'll remove it - if it hasn't blown off into the field next door!

Also I have a row of spinach beet under a plastic forcing tunnel but no matter how many rocks I put on it it keeps blowing off too! I give up!

[Batfink]

I had this issue last year - having to go and collect mine a good couple of hundred metres after it blew away in a gust of wind. Our area is particularly stoney, with quite loose topsoil - so pegging things down is problematic. My solution was to lash the whole frame work to a pallet - using traditional agricultural bailing twine. It had started to fray by the end of the season, so this year I'm going to get hold of some old lorry webbing strops as they are both heavier and more robust - fingers crossed!