Early on Saturday morning, I stood in my polytunnel in a t shirt, it was 30 degrees celsius and it felt like gardening in the height of summer. Outside it was pouring rain, there were strong winds and it was a chilly 3 degrees.
I have spent just under two years gardening outdoors, victim to the elements. I always swore I wasn’t going to get a polytunnel, partly because of the price and partly because of the work involved. It means that during the summer months, I’ll have to get out to the plot at least 3-4 times a week to water my crops which is a task when you’re working full time, live miles away from your plot and don’t drive. However, on a whim a few weeks ago, I decided to get myself a polytunnel, I’m a terrible woman for expensive, impulse purchases. This one is paying off already though. Not only was I able to stand in there on a freezing Saturday in March, planting and dancing (yes, I dance in my polytunnel, I need to do it somewhere you know), I can now attempt to grow crops that I couldn’t even consider trying in the past.
The polytunnel will likely be my biggest project this year, I need to figure out the layout and install some raised beds. To start, I got myself a staging table for planting and for my seedlings etc. As such, I now have a proper potting bench, it was something I sorely needed on the plot. It’s my equivalent of a desk.
On Saturday, I got some serious planting started. I peeled off my hoodie, stuck on my iPod (for the dancing), poured myself a coffee from my flask and got my hands dirty. I planted celery, celeriac, cucumbers, basil (sweet and red basil), corriander and some sunflowers. These, along with my already planted tomatoes, aubergines, peppers and chillies means I have a good start on my polytunnel crops now.
I also got my red and white onions planted outside. The cold windy weather was a bit of a shock to my system after the balmy confines of the polytunnel. I love planting onions, for me, it’s the herald of a new gardening season. Within about two weeks, I’ll hopefully have lots of crops planted in my raised beds, I hate when they’re all bare.
My rhubarb is once again looking to be the king of my plot, there’s loads of it already and I reckon I’ll be picking some next weekend. In fact, I’m a little scared, last year it was monstrous, I had so much rhubarb that I thought I’d crumble (see what I did there?) under the pressure to use it all. Which is a good complaint to have I suppose.
The plot is in pretty good shape at the moment. She needs a bit of TLC though. I need to fix my fencing, build a gate, put up my birdhouse, plant lots of flowers, touch up the paint work and build myself a patio/seating area in addition to sorting out the polytunnel. My work here is never done.
Next weekend, I have aspirations to spend the whole weekend on the plot, it’s amazing how much you can get done in an eight hour gardening frenzy, so hopefully over three days I can get loads done. I even have an adorable portable gas stove now, to cook myself some lunch, courtesy of my parents. Best birthday present ever!
It all looks exciting – I think the poly tunnel is a great investment. You made me smile because I basked in the 25 degree warmth of the little greenhouse today, then wrapped up to go into the garden. You just need a camp bed and portaloo and you can camp out for the weekend!
Or one of those compostable toilets! Think that might be taking it all a bit too far though!
Ha! Good idea, could be good for the garden…? Maybe not!
The poly tunnel sounds amazing. I assume that you have no heating in it except for the sun? Please post more pictures later. I want to see how you organize the space later. Hubby and I want to hear your progress. We are still discussing getting one ourselves. It is one thing reading about it on line. It is another to follow someone using it and showing you it’s benefits to your garden. Thank you for sharing this with us. It sounds like you have fixed a really nice allotment. I am sure a little patio space would be useful to sit back and relax to eat or drink a cup of tea and to socialize with the others in your allotment group.
No heating at all, just the sun doing all the work, can’t wait until summer when it really heats up! It’s literally a game changer. Only have it a few weeks and already don’t know myself, worth the investment, though it is steep.
I am so looking forward to following what is going on in your poly Tunnel. Thanks for answer my question. Please keep posting what your doing in the poly tunnel as well.
Honey
So exciting! Here’s to a prosperous gardening year!
Looks like a great setup. After twenty+ years I finally built a simple work table next to my compost bins and my back is already thanking me for it. Boards on a wheelbarrow just don’t cut it anymore.
It makes such a difference, before, I was doing something similar to yourself, a makeshift thing out of pallets, this one os pressure treated wood and its 6foot wide so lots of space. 🙂