new poly

new poly finally turned up tuesday, going to put it into place tomorrow. Im lifting slabs to put it into place, then im going to dig them back in to make a raised bed down the one side. tunnels only 4x2x2, so im hoping to get all the work done in one day

 

well the tunnels in, but what a nightmare, thought it would be easy to do on my own ummm nope. to start with it started raining, so i thought id put the cover on, as the frame was up , then id be able to keep working. unfortunately, the wind had other ideas. got it on eventually, and started digging to put the slabs back in, after a foot of top soil i hit rubble, according top the neighbour, what the house around here are mostly built on, is old houses, so the raised beds are going to have to wait for me to get some planks.
got a few jobs left for tomorrow like finishing the path and fitting my tomato support bar, but all in all job done.
my advice to anyone else who plans to do this for the first time, get help, bribe with beer or food but get help.
what i will say though is that despite the hard work, and my own lack of planning i did enjoy myself.
sorry for long post

 

Nice one Savo

 

We need photos! Well done!

 

damn tunnel split at the zip, strong winds caused the stitching to separate, waiting on reply from company i got it from, as to whats going to happen.
there will be some photos of my tunnel once soon, but im working 6 till 17:30 at the moment, go to work in the dark, come home in the dark :(.
im off next week will try to get some then.

 

The door zip is always a weak point and the best solution is to form a timber door covered with the polythene using the zippered door (even better to do this after getting a replacement cover from the supplier which can then be kept as a spare for when the original wears out!).

It looks like you have a galvanised steel frame which will get hot in sunny weather and unless you've added anti-hotspot tape (white stuff in pics below) to it, the cover will deteriorate due to being in contact with the hot tubing. The tape will also slightly increase the size of every tube touching the cover and make the cover a tighter fit putting more strain on the zips, but cutting the zipped door and forming a proper door opening allows the cover to be positioned correctly over the slightly larger frame.



Anti-hotspot tape will also cover any projecting bolt heads in contact with the cover that can wear holes through it. I replaced all the bolts supplied with my galvanised frame tunnel with longer ones with flatter heads (bought from Wilkos). I used the longer bolts to attach battens to provide fixings for tops of bamboo canes or attach supports for demountable staging, fixing the top of door frame to the tubing, and fixing an internal edging board to the beds (which was fixed to holding down straps):







Construct a timber frame like this, secure cover to it with nailed/screwed battens, remove zippered door (and other bits within the opening) and use it to cover a new hinged timber door with polythene covering.

 

thanks for that scrungee. i think a proper door is going to be my best option, but im thinking of making like the old cottage doors that are half and half. the problems i have, are that we always have kids around here, loads of friends have toddlers, we also have a cat problem, with neighbours complaining about them using there greenhouses as beds and litter boxes. im hoping a half and half door will help with this, itll also keep my dogs out of there.
as for the hotspot tape, i didnt get it, but as ive already decided to replace this cover with the proper stuff next year, ill do it then.
the problems i have with the green stuff, is that its so noisy in the wind, and mine leaks at the seems, which i have 2 of running across the ceiling, i built a potting table to hold all my stuff, but everytime it rains the damn thing gets flooded.

 

Plus birds flying in to steal strawberries, rabbits getting in to steal veg from the borders (then burrowing amongst the plants!). I thought about stable doors but opted for full height mesh screens for when the doors are open.

If you construct some demountable staging it can be used for potting up earlier on, then removed for the summer to permit tomatoes to be grown full height, then replaced when the tomatoes are finished which I find far more versatile than something fixed.



And even more staging between the other staging

 

Pictures as promised.

Small staging table, looks rough i know, but very solid, made up of scrap wood from the garden, to be honest, after consideration, i dont need anything bigger.

The larger tube is for my strawberries, the smaller is for some trailing cherry tomatoes i brought the seeds for off ebay.

My little work table, again built from scraps.

This bar is for my tomatoes, i decided to try using string wound around the plants to support them, this seemed like the most space conserving way to go, if it dosent work i can always change it, and does anyone know how to keep the bloody flies out.

One of the reasons i need to get a proper door built on this thing, everytime i turn around either her or my german shephard are in here, but at least they keep the cats out.

 

I keep £1 kiddy fishing nets in my tunnels for removing butterflies, bees, etc.

 

Are you available for hire scrungee? I have bought a tunnel just like this. I'll pay well lol. Sausage butties and the girlfriends cheesecake in abundance!

 

Scrungee guess who ended up adding more shelvingxzzzz

 

Rather than make the shelving fixed, i made it so that i can take it out, i also made a caster wheeled board, that way when i want to harder off my plants i can put them all on the board and just wheel it up the garden in one go.
this was me trying to save a bit of time at 5 in the morning when im putting trays out before going to work .