polytunnel Archives - Page 2 of 2

Even though the weather is still quite unsettled and un-spring like I decided to plant my Spagna Bianco beans out. I waited quite a while before I started them in pots in the greenhouse but they grew at an alarming rate and very soon were trying to get out of the greenhouse. I put the whole tray of them in the veranda to harden them so I think they were quite tough when they went in the ground. I didn’t want to take chances so I built a little fleece fence round them, perhaps just for a bit of protection from the wind.

There is also one line of them but this didn’t get any pampering because these are just beside the net tunnel and that seems to keep the wind off them.

The next job was to plant something in the four empty cold frames. I had radishes there, harvested them and now they were ready.

I have grown five bush courgettes, ideal for this, hopefully they’ll just sit there and produce loads of tasty fruit. One cold frame had to have two courgette plants but I don’t think this will matter. If it gets too overcrowded I’ll just carefully take one out and plant is elsewhere.

The last job was planting some more lettuce seedlings in the polytunnel. The first batch are doing very well and the four cucumbers as well. I had one tray of lettuce, one cucumber plant and one ‘mystery’ plant. It looks like a squash, courgette or pumpkin – the label got lost in moving. We shall see.

I’m sure there’s a very good reason why we have the four seasons here. I don’t think I could keep going all year round, working on the allotment.

There have been times I wished for moderate climate all year round, that must have been before I had the allotment.

Now I’m only too glad of the late autumn, winter and perhaps the very start of the spring, when there isn’t much more to do and all I’ve got to do is to sort out the seeds, plan what’s going to be grown where – and do some maintenance.

My polytunnel looks a bit tired now but it still works, it gives shelter to the early lettuce and later the tomatoes and peppers. I’ve got one of the water butts close by, I like to use rainwater as much as possible; some years this is no problem! I cleared any weeds from the beds, hoed it and the tunnel is ready.

There was a small area behind the polytunnel, very close to the boundary fence where it was impossible to grow anything – the brambles were too vigorous. I decided to put my two composter bins there and also managed to put up a barrier using the ever useful pallets, thus keeping the heap of weeds and/or garden waste that I can’t fit in the bins any more. The narrow strip of ground will be put to good use – I’ll have summer flowers there, to attract the bees.

When the time comes and the plastic cover gets too fragile and starts falling to bits, I don’t think I shall replace it with the same, I shall use a fine mesh. I’ve seen large tunnels covered like that, I’m sure it gives protection of sorts and the bonus is that I wouldn’t have to worry about watering it, the weather can do it for me.