The Polytunnel

With the being fantastic weather this past weekend nearly all of my time was spent in the garden. My main job was to erect the polytunnel that I had bought last week.

I had to make a bit of a compromise on where I originally wanted it to go, the shed that I thought could be easily moved turned out to be fixed to a concrete base leaving me no choice but to level the piece of land beside it. This took most of a day shifting earth, cutting back bushes and rebuilding stone retaining walls. Not particularly what I had in mind when I first purchased the polytunnel but an essential process in making sure it was in the best spot available to me. It will now get full sun the majority of the day, this only being obscured early on by two rowan trees further up the garden.

Once the site was prepared the polytunnel went up fairly quickly. The poles, nuts and bolts were all relatively self explanatory with the base slotting into the generous trenches I had dug out in order to secure the frame.

I was glad help was at hand to get the cover over the frame as this was probably the most tricky part. Once on, the bottom flaps were buried along with the base pole in the previously dug trenches; Inside the sheet was secured with Velcro straps ensuring that the sheet was pulled completely tight all over which also added to the rigidity of the frame.

In the tunnel I have built a raised bed on one side where I will grow tomatoes, pepper, courgettes and probably lots of other things I haven't even thought of yet. On the other side I have a table which will be used for sowing seed trays and potting.

As you can see from the photo the ducks should do a good job of keeping the tunnel pest free.

Having had my head stuck in gardening magazines and websites over the past few months I now realise we are a couple of weeks behind the UK in general with regards to temperature. This is due to the altitude and being so exposed on the mountains. The polytunnel is going to enable me to get a bit ahead of the game and look after any tender, young seedlings before plunging them into the great outdoors. It's also going to enable me to grow some more exotic plants and it'll give me somewhere to work on the rainy days.

On first impressions I am delighted with the investment and I'm sure they'll be plenty more updates from the polytunnel.