Steve's Polytunnels

Good job the tunnel was empty!

@Steve R I swopped the bolts supplied with my 3 x 6m 'Feelgood' tunnel with longer ones (Wilko pick and mix, longer and with flatter heads) so I could fix horizontal battens, bracing, staging, door frame heads, edging boards and holding down straps to the framework.

 

We have ordered one of these..I phoned them direct and got a much better price than advertised on Ebay.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/6m-x-3m-P...8d1c6&pid=100204&rk=27&rkt=27&sd=151610218773

It's a much stronger version of the feelgood galvanised tunnels we both bought three years ago Scrungee. I's got three ridge bars now and extra corner braces too. The great thing is, as the previous tunnel was tied down with rope to buried founds, all I have to do is untie, remove old tunnel, dig out cover. Erect new tunnel, tie it down and trench the cover and it's good to go, even the beds are ready for it now...lol

My galvanised one is still good and solid with no problems of rigidity, that is just waiting for a proper poly cover once it has been expanded, doubt that will happen this season now due to this purchase.

Steve...

 

The addition of central ridge bar will be handy for fixing a horizontal rail to support tops of canes, much easier than saddle clips around tops of hoops and a batten running along underneath them. It should be easy to fix a length of timber under the top rail using L brackets held in place using the frame fixing bolts.

I don't think much of the new 'Feelgood' tunnel design with less ventilation panels, much higher price and a steel tube door/framing that looks impossible to re-cover yourself with 'proper' tunnel polythene.

 

I don't really bother with canes in the tunnel now, certainly not full length ones. I run garden wire over and around the hoops at whatever place I need them, to this I attach twine and my tomatoes grow up that. The wire has the added advantage of being moveable/removeable too. so it's more flexible and not just at one given location.



I use a couple of canes for cucumbers.

Steve...

 

One tunnel down and cover dug out, looks like a bombsite now.





I've decided to move the location for the new tunnel to more level ground.





Hopefully get it finished off today.

Steve...

 

That looks like hard work Steve but what a marvellous you're making of it

 

I didn't quite get it finished today as there was nobody around to help with the cover, so got on and dug the whole thing over instead.



I've used scaffold boards at the base, on the inside so these form the edges of the beds. On the outside of the boards I have put a baton at the bottom of them and the tunnel frame sits on them, then it is cable tied to it. Inside I have driven some 4ft stakes (12 in total) into the ground and screwed the boards to those, probably overkill but it does get very windy here in the winter. I've left enough of the stakes out of the ground so I can put a temp bench together (re-using the temp staging from old tunnel) for early season seedlings and plants to live on.



I just need to get the cover on tomorrow. I'll lay the flags for the pathway and edge that with timber to finish the beds off and make/hang the doors on a wet day in the near future.

Steve...

 

I'm planning on moving the cut flowers to here.

No rain, no Lakes! Shiney you ALWATS visit on the dry days!

Steve...

 

Tunnel is just about done now.



Cover on, door made, beds edged and dug over ready for planting, just need to finish central pathway and erect some temp staging for young plants early spring.





Steve...

 

Now that I have a new tunnel up and ready to go, I went a little further and put a new cover on the old tunnel and that cover was like a large teabag!





I also built a new door for it, dug over the beds and topped them off with some well rotted manure, so now I have two tunnels ready to go.

I've also cleaned up the old polytunnel area and started to plant that, that's all on my blog (link below) if your interested, along with my overall plot progress this year.

Steve...

 

Isn't that a proprietary replacement mesh reinforced cover with integral vents? (rather than covering with sheet poly tunnel polythene), wondered if you went for the quick option after all the hassle of replacing the other tunnel.