Bottled-up enthusiasm: Yorkshire's greenest greenhouse

When the roof caved in on Dieter and Rina Kroner's greenhouse at their Bradford home, the couple turned to the internet to try to find a cheap replacement.

But their search led to the inspiration to create their own – using hundreds of recycled two- litre plastic bottles.

Mr Kroner, 63, said: "My wife works a lot in the garden and she wanted a greenhouse. For me being on benefits we could not afford to buy one. I was looking on the internet to buy one second-hand and I got the idea from the internet. Even the second-hand ones were too expensive."

The unemployed maintenance engineer asked friends and neighbours to donate their empty bottles to the cause.

"I took the paper off, cleaned them up, cut the bottoms off and stuck them together," said Mr Kroner, who screwed the bottles into a wooden frame before adding a door.

The labour of love, which is made from about 1,000 bottles even boasts a cat flap – so the couple's six cats as well as some local strays can get to the shelter where they are regularly fed.

The roof is the only part of the structure not made from bottles but corrugated plastic sheeting.

Collecting enough bottles took about six months, but Mr Kroner completed the job in just two weeks just before Christmas and, despite the harsh winter weather, it is still standing.

And at a total cost of about 30, the couple didn't have to fork out hundreds for a new greenhouse.

Moreover, the latest addition to the couple's semi-detached home in the Great Horton area of the city has proved so popular Mr Kroner has now been asked by friends if he can build similar greenhouses for them.