Alison o.uk wrote in
message ...
Apologies for not being *quite* garden orientated but there are just so
many
lovely conservatory plants about that we're considering having one built.

Are there any things you wish you had known when
you bought yours or things you would change now given half a chance?

We made some mistakes:

1. We had our conservatory built in far too warm and sunny a part of the
garden. Consequently, not only did we lose a pleasant part of the garden
when we could have lost one that was less so, but also we have a
conservatory which gets FAR too hot in the summer.

2.Our conservatory is large and a nice, but irregular shape. The roof has
many small sections with quite deep frames. The irregular shape makes it
unsuitable for 'tented' shade, we've been told, and when we had a quote for
roof blinds we were told we'd need a huge number of individual blinds
because of the many deep-framed little sections. £6,000 (yes, SIX THOUSAND
POUNDS!) was the figure quoted for the roof blinds. So our conservatory roof
will remain unshaded, I'm afraid!

3. I've sometimes wondered if it's structurally possible to have a room
that's like a conservatory, but with a proper roof. This, it seems to me,
would cut down on the heat. There would be less light, of course, but it
would still be much lighter than an ordinary room because of the large
expanse of windows.

Good luck!

Plum