I have started...... So I will finish! (Pictures).

Thanks JWK. I am not alone in doing all this work. Have to say that NONE of it would be possible without Mrs Chopper. Who has worked just as hard as me, but also provided copious amounts of tea and food. With only one small moan about being a girlie when I asked her to help move the 15th sleeper into place!!

(Just can't get the staff nowadays). :wink::wink:

Chopper.

 

Very, very impressed. :gnthb: :gnthb:

I'm looking forward to seeing your garden take shape.

Keep taking piccies. The more the better.

 

You have put in a lot of work there Chopper, more than a lot of physically able folk could, carry on with updates.:gnthb:

 

Bit more progress. I have got the big 12 x 8 shed apart and moved the panels to the side of the house ready to be collected. Dismantled what was the old greenhouse base, most of that went straight in the skip.

Cut down the big Ash tree and the two rather sickly looking plum trees. I chainsawed any branches big enough to keep for firewood and lopped the rest up into small pieces. Takes up less room in the skip that way. Cleared all the chicken wire from the old chicken run. All the brambles, stinging nettles and **** growing through from next doors neglected fence panels have been removed. He IS going to replace that fence and sort out the messI just haven't told him..... YET!

The shed had been erected on a base of gravel on top of a weed supressant sheet. So I am going to collect all that gravel and use it in the space just above the big pond. I was going to put decking ion that area but I think using the gravel will be more in keeping with that part of the garden.

Got to go and collect a petrol tiller tomorrow (Wednesday) afternoon, that I have hired for a day. Once the gravel is cleared and moved, I can rotavate the base area for my polytunnel.

Been a real slog for me the last couple of days, so I am going to go steady for a couple of days. I will do some more pictures tomorrow and post them here. You can see what the garden looked like in the pictures I posted earlier. Does look very different now though.

Chopper.

 

...The suspense and anticipation is too much :D

 

Well I finally got the new polytunnel up, made some staging out of what used to be a large balcony. Dug a path down one side and used some builders plastic as weed cover and then topped it with the gravel that used to be under the shed.

I cheated a bit and contacted a wholesale nursery to get a batch of plug plants. Nearly finished potting them into 9cm pots. Once that is done I am building a raised bed 20 feet by 4 feet in the centre of the tunnel. Then I am going to build a compost area using some pallets that I have reclaimed from the local trading estate. Got them for free, all I had to do was ask and they were more than happy for me to take them away. I like free!!

Will take some pictures and post them tomorrow. Been a very busy few days and I have loved every minute of it. Sitting in the tunnel with a cuppa is really cosy. Learned a hell of a lot as well.

Chopper.

 

Well done, Chopper, alot of hard work, but worth it.

Keep the pics coming.

 

Some pictures from the latest work.



Got the site for the polytunnel leveled. Had to gather all the gravel that was underneath the old shed, as I wanted that for making pathways around the tunnel. I hired a big tiller to break up the ground.



The first of the 14 anchor plates to be dug. Hard work this bit.

Chopper.

 

Getting all the frame work in place was pretty hard going. A lot of work involving lifting things above shoulder hieght. Always causes me a lot of pain so, I had to do this a bit at a time.



Finally got the cover on and the side vent in place and working.



The first of the footpaths around the tunnel.

Chopper

 

Wow that looks fantastic....well done :thumb:

 

This was the bit I was really looking forward to. Potting on all the plug plants that I bought. This picture shows about half of what I ordered. Out of what I ordered there were quite a few plugs that were doubled up so I was able to seperate them and get more plants.

Just being potted on, watered and left in the tunnel overnight made a huge difference to the plugs. Very interesting to see the difference.

The difference in temperature between outside and inside the tunnel is amazing. I overdid things earlier in the week, causing pretty serious pain in my neck and shoulders. I sat in the tunnel for an hour with a cuppa and one of my new gardening books. BRILLIANT! Better than any drugs.

Hope you like what I am doing. Still a hell of a long way to go and I am learning every day.

Chopper.

 

Wow good work, Chopper. Let us know how things progress.

 

What a fantastic Poly I particularly like the integral staging supports, and the ventilation net along the sides. Both things which are normally afterthoughts, or not considered at all in the design. And those footings aren't going to blow away either.

Not so sure about the loose fitting door though!

What Brand is the poly tunnel? Well worth publicising it I reckon. (Sorry if you mentioned it earlier in the thread and I've forgotten already)

 

Fabulous.