The Polytunnel Came this Week

The polytunnel came this week.  The friendly lorry driver handed me 14 packages full of bits and bobs carefully wrapped in polythene, paper and cardboard. I had three packs of wooden planks, a large box then the rest of the packages were varying sizes of shiny galvanised high tensile steel rods, some straight and some angled.  I placed them all neatly into a pile in the garage then rummaged around the inside of the box for the instructions to read as I drank my first of tea. There were 35 pages to get through.

Getting Bored

After page 5 I got bored and started to glaze over so I thought the best thing to do is start unwrapping and laying out the bits. I couple of things have changed in the 13 years since I last put up a tunnel in Clonbeg (it shocked me a bit when I counted the years back).  Most hoops just slotted together and the tension of the plastic kept everything in place. Now the hoops are held together with self tapping screws for extra strength, the supporting rods seem to go deeper into the ground as well. Maybe too many tunnels blew away in strong winds so this extra reinforcement is a good thing. 

Preparation

I had some of the preparation work already done for the tunnel. I cleared and levelled the ground and because one of the longer sides of the tunnel was to run along a wall I pre dug the foot deep trench to hold the plastic in place. The soil that was dug to make the trench needed to be on the outside of the tunnel for backfilling as you wouldn’t be able to do this after the plastic is put on – “if the soil was inside it would be the wrong side of the plastic” (It pays to read instructions).   I put this soil into bags so they could be handed to me in the gap between the tunnel and the wall.

The next three days have been spent securing everything into place. The securing poles were hammered into the ground and the 5 hoop sections were fitted and screwed into place.  I spent a while putting the door frame and door together, the top half is green netting for ventilation and the bottom is plastic, there is a dummy door at the other end that needed putting together which is virtually the same but without hinges.   I managed to do this work by myself and very happy I was too out in the sunshine.  The final stage was to put on the plastic cover.  It’s definitely a two person job so I booked Julie’s help after looking at the long range weather forecast and seeing the Saturday was to be really sunny with only a 7mph wind speed. Perfect.  I unpacked the plastic and after finding out which side was the “anti drip side” (this goes inside the tunnel) we unfurled the sheet, pulled it over the hoops  and let is soften in the sunshine for half an hour as I had another cuppa.

Putting the plastic on so it has even tension all over wasn’t the easiest thing we have ever done, but Julie managed to do keep up the tension on the sheet as I hit galvanised nails into wooden battens to trap the cover.  It was a question of being systematic and starting from the centre and working outwards.  There were a few anxious moments when I miss hit the nails and when a rogue twig started to try and poke through the plastic sheet, but we got there. Job done!

The small things

I am still at that - looking at the imperfections/things I would have done differently stage of the work but hopefully as we start to fill the tunnel up I will see this as a golden opportunity to restart growing under cover. I hadn’t realised I had missed growing in a polythene tunnel so much.  

The seedlings sprouting on the windowsills in the house will soon have a new place to grow and thrive. All that I need to do now is devise methods to keep the dogs away from the new sieved soil, actually add a cat to the list too. Ever since I sieved the soil and removed the sharp stones and glass, the beds seem to be gaining a bit of a reputation as a kitty toilet.  I’m not as badly off as a bloke from Freecycle though who I was talking to today. ( he answered an advert I put on asking if anyone had unused plant pots and said he had some to spare).  He has stopped growing vegetables and flowers all together as his garden is full of rabbits.  “I am very sorry to hear that” I said. “Don’t be” was his reply, “I prefer to watch rabbits than to grow plants.” Each to their own.