Month: May 2013 (Page 3 of 4)

I am working on the basis that if I am going to have to water the plants in the polytunnel on a daily basis, then I had just as well water a polytunnel full of plants rather than a polytunnel half full of plants.

I am not a keen gardener.  I leave that to Jo.  But with Jo in London this week and time moving on, I thought I should lend a hand with a bit of planting.

We bought some tomato plants at the weekend and these are now planted in two growbags cut in half.  I have stood these upright at one end of the polytunnel.

At the weekend, we planted some mixed lettuce seeds as well as some chilli and beetroot (all as seeds).  Today, I planted out the seed potatoes that we bought a couple of weeks ago and allow to “chit” in the dark (whatever that means!).  I also planted a couple of rows of parsnips and 6 cabbages (all bought as plants).

Goodness knows whether any of this will grow, but let’s see.

The end bed contains 9 seed potato plants. The bed next door contains two rows of parsnips and 6 cabbages.

Each one planted in half of a growbag (gaffer tape put around the middle and then cut in half with a Stanley knife). We have inserted and upside down plastic bottle with the lid and bottom removed. This acts to funnel the water deep inside the bag.

One side of the polytunnel has been set up with staging.  The other side is going to have raised beds for growing vegetables.

I picked up the raised beds and the “veggie” soil from Tommy Topsoil (http://www.tommytopsoil.com/) near Halifax this morning.  I bought loose soil which was loaded onto the back of the pickup as well as two 8ft x 4ft raised beds.  It took most of the afternoon to set them up, but they are now ready for planting.

The L200 will carry about 1 ton on the back. With a cubic meter of soil on the back, we are just about full!

Two raised beds (8ft x 4ft) setup side by side. It took a cubic meter of soil to fill these two raised beds.

Just about done.  The excess plastic around the door frames has been trimmed.  The excess around the edges of the polytunnel will be buried in a trench around the polytunnel.  This will help ensure that the polytunnel isn’t going to go anywhere in strong winds.  We will probably put a row of patio slabs around the edge of the polytunnel to keep the grass at bay – we will not be able to use the strimmer up against the polytunnel.

I would have dug the trench today and  backfilled it, but the physio has told me to take it easy with my back.

The plastic covering the polytunnel has now been trimmed around the door frames. The plastic just needs to be tensioned and then the excess around the edges buried into a trench around the polytunnel.

And I am almost there.  By the end of the day, the frame is covered and waiting to be tensioned.  I had to get some help unfolding the plastic before it went onto the frame.  I probably could have done it on my, but it is the sort of job that would take an hour on your own or 5 mins with two people.  I opted for  the two person approach and Rob North kindly lent a hand.

It is starting to look like a polytunnel now, particularly from the inside!

The next job is to tension the plastic and cut off the excess,  but that will have to wait until tomorrow.

I must admit that this is a two man job – unfolding the plastic and getting it over the hoops is much easy with two pairs of hands. Rob North kindly assisted.

It only took 5-10 minutes to unfold the plastic and get it onto the frame. Next job is to attached it to the wooden battens that run aroung the base of the frame making sure that it is tensioned correctly. Why do I think of Dougal from the Magic Roundabout?

The plastic is still to be tensioned and the excess material trimmed off around the door, but we are almost there!