This year my wonderful fiance bought us a polytunnel greenhouse, one of those modern greenhouses with a plastic covering instead of the standard glass windowed type. Cheaper, quicker to erect and doesn’t let the green inhabitants boil to death. However, you do need to add extra weights to hold down the cover which can – and did in my case! – blow off in high winds.
Ours is at the end of the garden…
Like to come inside?
Not too much going on as can be seen in this photo…but that was taken a month ago. In my next post I’ll show you how much further everything has got on, I am quite happily surprised myself 🙂
In the above photo there’s one tomato plant (established); 2 sweet pepper seedlings (pink pots, grown from seed myself, from sweet peppers from the supermarket); 1 bucket of mixed herbs, from seed, basil and dill; 1 bucket of a garlic bulb (unfortunately, this never took and really stank so I threw it away); bottom shelf, long planter with 2 smallish tomato plants and 2 TINY cucumbers (the poor cucumbers were ravished – in the horrible sense! – by invading slugs; and, although they are still alive today, the one is still trying to get past the trauma of the whole incident 😦 ); 1 large seed tray of blackberry and strawflower seeds.
[Above photo: sweet peppers – sprinkled with blue slug pellets. Sorry slugs. It was either you or my green babies.]
At this point – 1 month on – I’m almost running out of space! And to think at the beginning, the 3 m x 2 m polytunnel seemed rather large and empty 😮
I really like my gardening shelves. I might get another pair so I make better use of the space. These shelves are now filled completely.
I love spending time inside the polytunnel. It’s so peaceful. I sit on an old ‘kick-along’ stool and pot away.
[Above photo: yep, I’m growing those too – now.]
Foolishly I thought that the invading slugs and snails could NOT get into the polytunnel, but how wrong was I! Overnight I lost 2 baby lettuces. I said to Mum, “er you know that offer you made…to sprinkle everything with your slug pellets…?”
[Above 2 photos: tomatoes were first grown in the bathroom as the polytunnel hadn’t arrived by then. Below photo: poor ravaged cucumbers!]
Each day there’s different visiting insects. One morning I spotted about 20 ladybirds. They’re more than welcome to stay 😉
More often than not I get other visitors…like my Jack Russell, Chester. One time I was sitting there, quietly content potting on and a rocket shot into the polytunnel: Chester had arrived home from her walk with Mum, and had obviously spotted me, with her keen eyes, at the end of the garden. Oh, did that startle me though, haha.
[Above photo: the front of the polytunnel, whilst inside. I don’t bother opening both zips of the door as access is just as easy – and less fussy – with just the one.]
The frame of which the polytunnel ‘plastic’ covers, is sturdy enough with poles that easily slot in – or out – of each other. So if you go wrong, you can easily undo it. It is recommended to dismantle this polytunnel during snowfall. We don’t get much of the white stuff in Norfolk though, so I’d think it can stay up throughout the seasons.
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