Not posh enough for greenhouse,

hi all,
hex, put your suggestion of moving to cornwall, but hubby went bit maroon in the face . You see when i moved to wales, i brought my garden with me , 360 odd plants, inside 2 landrovers i towed down, my own landrover was full to capacity both times too. I moved from 1/5th acre to a much larger plot. So to move now would take much more to move garden. So, i'll stay put, if only to save a divorce.
Incidentally, i have a couple of mini greenhaouses in my polytunnel where i keep my real tender stuff, not that there is much, the rest are perennials, cuttings, shrubs and small trees. All are hardy, but i take them in as there are so many and to be honest i'm not sure how they'd all survive the winter with large rootballs that fill the pots. I refuse to pot them on as yet until feb. Actually i did hope to sow a few hardy plants, but room is very much at a minimum. No doubt all the windowsills in the house will be brimming with seed trays this winter .

 

Hi Compostee

Sounds like you do a lot of mileage moving plants inside for the winter but maybe better to be safe than sorry.
The mini greenhouses inside the tunnel are a good idea and should last almost indefinitely as your tunnel cover is taking all the abuse.

You could get hubby to put shelves across a little used window.. then you`ll have more than one windowsill to put the seedtrays on

Sounds like when you recover the tunnel you will need to add a few more hoops and extend it to 60ft
long!
Perhaps hubby could build you a Welsh Eden dome then you could replace the cover panel by panel rather than the whole lot in one go
..also cheaper than moving to Cornwall :D

 

HEX.

oh wow what an idea, a welsh eden. I would extend tunnel, but fruit cage and ground raising too much behind and to the front access area for landy deliveries of compost and plants. Might get to build a new tunnel next year nearer house.
Thanx for windowsill idea. Fortunately i have open book shelves that i place on windowsills, little used or not. Some rooms can be dark, but hey, my seeds need germinating. One needs a davy lamp to find the hole in both up and down loos.

 

Hi Compostee,
I`ve no idea what "Eden" translates to in welsh but perhaps it`s quite catchy?

It`s certainly doable though if scaled down a bit.. and perhaps only as expensive as a tunnel if you (aka hubby) build it yourself

I haven`t a huge amount of space (more`s the pity) but that isn`t going to stop me from having a version of it eventually :D

Here`s an impression of what it should look like once complete.


My neighbours wouldn`t want a polytunnel next door but i get away with things like this

If you`re handy with a saw and have mad scientist tendencies, you`ll find almost anything is possible

 

You only get 90% light transmission through a polytunnel cover so if you put two on you'd only get 90% of the 90% (to tired to try and work it out (81% I think) :D ) Whilst we are only getting short day at the moment it's the light level thats important as much as the day length. SO a short dark day won't be much good to you.

I would be more inclines to cover your plants with some fleece when its cold and take it off when it's daylight unless you heat the tunnel.

As to twin skins, Kederhouses are made with a sort of bubblewrap skin and they are a lot warmer than a normal tunnel but again, they loose light thru the two skins.

[ 30. November 2006, 08:59 PM: Message edited by: Nick the Grief ]