rringa: You asked: "do I want to make it simple and just brick the whole floor first, then put stuff (ie: raised beds) on top of that...or should I map out a specific space where I'd like them to be and work around that area."

I'd say that depends on how secure you are about your plans and if you believe that once you have set it up, you won't want to rearrange things later.

I suppose it's like the remodeling one does in a kitchen. What turns out best to suit YOU? Plans you make when you first buy a house, or those you develop after living it it for a while?

I've been "living" in my GH for going on 2 years now and made some interior arrangement mistakes that I'm in process of correcting, but I had to live with them for a while in order to learn the errors of my original plans.

So if your raised bed plan is the result of living in your GH long enough to really know what you want and what will best work for you, paving under a permanent raised bed would seem silly.

However, you could still hedge your bets for the future. Paving bricks aren't that expensive, so perhaps you could buy enough to do the entire floor and then if sometine in the future you want to change things again, you will have the matching pavers on hand to complete the floor.

Now is sure the time to buy gardening supplies. Everything is on sale and after this summer of financial panic, the home centers seem overly stocked with supplies for this time of the year. We were at a Menards in Sherriville, IN yesterday and were amazed to see the hundreds of full pallets of pavers, bags of soils, mulches and fence pickets they still had on hand. It looked far more like it did last June, than the end of August, so now would be seem the perfect time to stock up.

birdwidow,
thanks for taking time to respond. I guess I too am "living" in my GH, I'll have something a certain way and it will work for a time, then I think of something else or somewhere else to put it etc and then I like it better the new way.

I guess when it comes to soil, once covered, I wont have the advantage of that natural soil any longer. So I guess before I decide, I'd better figure things out better :)

I have collected several thousand bricks FREE and a big pile of sand to boot (also free). I'll chew on it longer (sides I'm not quite ready to start the project anyway). Still need to clean everything out of there.

If you want to grow 'in the ground' then take a piece of graph paper, mark off 10' x 12' and start from there.

Place your shelving units first. Note any that are tall enough to plant under, or put pots under for shade plants.

Lay out paths (18 inches works for me and that's the width of my pavers, or is it 16"?)

After the paths and shelves are laid out, see where is left for inground beds. Draw in brick edging two bricks tall -- two bricks overlapped at the seams (like laying brick) will stay in place. Any space not taken up by path, shelves or beds can be covered by whatever you're making the paths of. Two bricks tall will allow for keeping soil amendments and mulch in place. I would not want a raised bed on top of brick. Atop the ground, plant roots can go right on down into the clay soil where good nutrients are. Except for moss, not much grows on brick.

If you didn't put extra bolts into the slots of the aluminum uprights as you assembled your GH, check out T-bolts as described in some posts here in the forum. They'll be good for securing your shelving to the uprights, which will also strengthen your walls.

I'm ready for cool weather. When I started outside this morning, the temperature was a balmy 75. Combined with a humidity of 93, it was miserable. So much to do.

Nell

My previous post was not very well communicated, now that I read it again. Here's a photo of what I did.

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There is a row of 16" pavers all the around, 24" from the south wall, 28" from the back wall where my water barrels sit on a different size paver with brick seams to make them space out evenly, 26" from the north wall where the potting bench sits on yet another size paver.

Where I step into the GH has brick placed against the foundation so the pavers moved foward and make a better 'landing.' I covered the bare soil in the center rectangle and on the sides with cypress mulch and placed two 'roll-up' paths from HF over the middle. Those can removed and the bare earth accessed easily.

I'm already taking cuttings of butterfly nectar plants that are iffy about returning, white shrimp plant that only blooms in the greenhouse, begonias and some other things that want keeping over.

Have you worked out a plan for your floor and benches yet?
Nell

Rjinga, I completely bricked my floor and then built a 12 inch high raised bed on top of the brick floor which I filled with soil. The ground heat helped keep the bed warm. Water drained through. I used it for several seasons but finally decided to tear it down. When torn down, my floor was ready to use as soon as I removed the soil.

Another related question...if you dont mind :)

I have now cleared out the GH and removed as much of the weeds etc (bermuda grass) that I could. I have the following material to use/put down. I'd be interested in seeing how others might use what I have.

This is the order in which I will proceed (ie: what I will put down and in what order) If you have a better idea or suggestion please let me know

Round Up
Cardboard
Weed Block fabric
Sand (will probably be up to 3 to 4 inches thick in some areas and at least 1-2 inches all over since the ground is uneven)
Bricks
Mortar/Sand Mix (after bricks are laid, I will mix the dry sand with the dry mortar mix and then sweep it into the brick cracks/seams, then will wet it to activate the mortar.

You forgot one very important tool that you rent, and another that you make from pieces of 2 x 4- A power tamper and a scree. You would be surprised what a difference a tamper will make in getting that sand packed really well, especially on uneven ground- and why you need the scree, to level it and assure the bricks don't shift, even with the mortar/sand mix.

I understand why you want to kill all the vegetatiion and do let it die, then strip it off before you lay the first layer, but what is the purpose of the cardboard?

The cardboard is an added layer of block for the weeds. I have a few HUGE cardboard boxes that will completely cover the floor without gaps. I have seen bermuda grow up through weed block and it will try to grow up through cracks in the bricks if given the chance, but with one solid piece of cardboard it should really block it from coming up through. Of course the cardboard will deteriorate over time, but hopefully it will stay long enough to help.

Not at all familiar with a scree? and is the power tamper the "tool" you refer to that can be rented?

Yes, I have finally worked out a plan for the shelves etc that I have. I think it will work fine. I also decided to have one 6 ft x 3 ft planter. I'll work on getting a copy of my plan to post here :) or pictures maybe

Yes. A power tamper. You can tamp sand with a hand tool, but they have to weigh a lot to be effective and it takes a lot of power in each hit to accomplish much and to hand tamp with enough force to get the same effect as with a power tamper is a good way to end up needing medical attention afterwards.

A laid brick floor is only as good as the base below it and a power tamper is the tool of choice to get the compression you must have to establish the base required in order to have a brick floor turn out with each brick set at exactly the level you want it, laying perfectly flat- and staying that way.

A scree is a board longer than the width of the space, used to keep the sand at the desired level and/or slope as you pour and tamp it. To use it, set up a pair of temporary boards on either side with their tops set at exactly the level the sand is to finish, so after you run the tamper over the sand base, you pull the scree along the tops of the side boards to knock off any high spots and expose any low ones, to fill them.

For a base the size of yours, you would need two people to operate the scree, but even if you have to do it several times, it's worth the effort, as the result will be a solid base for the bricks, set at the exact level you want them, with no bumps or hollows.

RE: the cardboard. I have some reservations about using it, because as you wrote; eventually it will rot and when it does, it may create just enough of a hollow under some spots to cause the bricks at that point to slump and if that occured, all of your work in getting them laid evenly would be ruined.

If you are going to apply a coat of herbicide to the area, then let it work and strip out any residual plant material, I honestly don't think you would have any wayward sprouts coming up through your floor later, especially if you use a heavy, commercial quality weed blocker fabric under the sand base. You could give yourself some extra protection by saturating the weed blocker fabric with the herbicide just before you pour the sand.

But the ultimate insurance would be to dig it all out and replace the soil you remove with gravel, then lay sand over that.

Termites love cardboard.

Nell

Nell: Your comment about termites and cardboard is a perfect example of why we who post here ought to make it a point to include our zones in our posts, as what applies in one climate zone may not in another. Meaning: living as I do so much further north than rjinga or youself, I never considered termites.

We have our problems up here in cold country, but termites, while they do live here, are still not a general problem. Our largest foundation issues tend to be cracking and settling due to the vast swings in our seasonal temps; as much as 100 degree differences between deep winter and high summer.

It often causes us to act oddly in the few months we actually have pleasant weather, such as old things like me climbing tall ladders to paint barn trim in October, because after our bone chilling winter, miserable, cold wet spring and blisteriung hot summer, the weather is finally- perfect. (LOL!)

Here's proof that It's actually underway!! I have not put about 4 rows in place, with 15 more to go. leveling as I go (pictured here BEFORE any leveling had been done), so far so good, btw...the sand was dry so not at all able to be packed/tamped to any real degree. I guess since it is dry, it will fill in just the same?

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