Hoops and Ridge Pole

Saturday (Day 7 - I checked ;)), we got the first 4 foundation tubes in. Sunday, we were rained off - not just the odd spot, but heavy rain that would have meant the foundation holes filling up with water, as well as making us cold, wet and miserable.. So I spent the day in the kitchen and did some baking.

Monday dawned bright and fair, so it was game-on again! Some good friends came over from Chester to help us out for the day, and once they arrived we got lots done. I got there early, and marked out the positions of the remaining foundation tubes, and dug the first 3 holes. Top tip for digging the holes - it's a lot easier to get the soil out of the holes using a long-handled shovel (the sort that you might move coal or something with) rather than a spade, as the angled head and high sides mean that soil stays on it rather than falling off before you get it out! When Mr Wix and Mark & Janet arrived, they set to digging the other 3 holes while I put the kettle on.

With all the foundation tubes in, and level, it was time to put the hoops together. This is a lot quicker than you think, and is a real boost when you're feeling weary and/or frustrated - getting those hoops up instantly shows what you're aiming for...

Looks good doesn't it?

Another enforced break at this point, as Mr Wix had to go back home and get the ridge pole, crop bars, door rails and corner stabilisers, and the step ladder. Good excuse to have a brew and some cake though... *grin*

Once he returned with the required parts, we started battling with the dreaded Q-clips... These are the means of fixing the door-rails, crop-bars and corner stabilisers to the hoops, and have to be prised open, pushed onto the hoops and then pressed closed again in order for the necessary bolts to go through them. It took ages to get them all on, and we cursed than no-one had thought to just slide the correct number of them onto the hoops before fixing them in place... Ah well, you lives an' you learns, eh?

The fellas set to attaching the door rails and crop-bars (being a short-arse, I wasn't much use with that bit) whilst Janet and I fitted the corner stabiliser bars. By the end of the afternoon, we had this:

 Doesn't it look brilliant?

We were all pretty exhausted by this point, with arms aching from holding things up and drilling/screwing/fixing things above head height etc. So we called it a day, and went home for Cornish (-style) pasties that I made earlier. 

Next will be door-frames and timber base-rails. But having been rained off again on Tuesday, and Mr Wix being back at work today, means it will be Friday before we get any more done...

Foundation Tubes

It's been a loooong and frustrating week. The weather has not been playing nice, and progress with the tunnel has been hampered by that, and by the fact that Mr Wix is incapable of functioning before about 11am, meaning half a day has vanished before we even make a start... Anyway. Day Whatever-we're-up-to-now, was setting out day. One of the most crucial parts of constructing a tunnel is getting the four corner foundation tubes in the right place, level and square with each other. It's well worth spending time on this bit, it means everything else fits later!
So, Saturday afternoon; construction guide, tape measure, string, spirit levels and spades ready, we made a start. First Tunnels construction guides are just brilliant, if you're puzzled at any point, QR codes in the booklet take you straight to a YouTube video showing exactly how to do it, plus they have a dedicated website with all of the construction guides, tips and tricks, and links to the YouTube channel. (See http://www.polytunnels.co.uk/ ). So we followed their instructions to the letter:

Once we found the right place for the tube to go, we dropped a square anchor plate over the tube, and marked out the square about an inch bigger than the plate with the spade, and then lifted them out of the way and dug the hole, checking the depth with the tube until it protruded just the right amount from the hole. 

Then seated the tube, put the clamps and anchor plates on, and back-filled the hole while holding the tube level.

It took all afternoon to get those four tubes in, but when measured from any point, they were practically perfect in positioning, and all level in height. Yay! I'm pretty sure that will make it much easier to put in the remaining 6 tubes.

Quick look at the rest of the plot

It's not all about the polytunnel of course, plenty going on in the rest of the plot.

This is the potato patch on plot #2. It's planted up with Ratte, Charlotte, Blue Danube, Sarpo Axona and Sarpo Mira. The Blue Danube and the Sarpos are blight resistant. They've all been slow to get going due to a very cold start to the season, but are all showing through now.

This is the pea bed on plot #2, there are 2 rows at the back doing really well, which were netted against the sparrows. The 2 rows in front are struggling though, because I ran out of netting and so the sparrows are having a feast :( Hopefully they'll pick up... 

Most of plot #2 in this pic: Onion bed, back right; beans, back left; fruit, immediate right; peas and brassicas under insect netting, immediate left.

This is plot #1: potato bed, planted with Desiree; a bed full of over-wintered garlic, and beyond that is the sweetcorn bed.

A closer look at the sweetcorn bed, which after planting, I surrounded each plant with a handful of pondweed in order to trap a bit of moisture around their roots. Sod's law meant that it chucked it down the day after... Not that I'm complaining of course ;)

And this is a closer look at the bean bed. The frame is planted up with climbing beans Cobra (green pods), Cosse Violette (prolific producer of purple pods), and Tarbais (which produce beautiful, big white beans for drying). In front there's a block of dwarf beans; Aquilon, Cupidon and Minidor. The dwarf beans and the Cosse Violette are all available from The Real Seed Co.

Mission Polytunnel!

It's been ages since I last blogged, but the plot is about to gain a major new addition in the shape of a First Tunnels 14ft x 20ft polytunnel, and I wanted to keep a record of the construction process. So here we go!

The space allocated for the tunnel includes the site of my old 6 x 12 greenhouse, plus the path surrounding it, the bed next to it, and the bed opposite - home to an overgrown strawberry patch and a clump of thuggish yellow raspberries. It all needs to be dug over, as the whole area is also host to the gardener's favourites: couch grass, bindweed, horsetail, dandelions and docks...

Once the greenhouse was removed (the cover stripped off and the frame given to a lottie neighbour), this is what was left to deal with:

The black box shows the space the tunnel will take up. So plenty to clear, dig over, and level!

 I decided to start with the old strawberry bed, because that's where the path will be redirected to, and work my way backwards. This is Day 1 and 2's progress;  raspberries cut down and digging commenced:

It's slooow going because we've had a couple of weeks of 'summer' - no rain and baking hot, plus there's a high concentration of couch and bindweed in this bed, so I'm *trying* to get every bit out...

Day 3 and 4 sees the bed finally dug over, and the outline of the tunnel's footprint marked out:

Day 5 was more of the same, with the back edge of the footprint marked out, and more couch grass, bindweed, docks, dandelions and creeping buttercup being removed, along with glass, pottery, bricks and what appeared to be half a washing line!

Day 6, and help arrived in the form of Mr Wix, and we fairly flew through the last bit (although I'm none too sure how thorough he was with the weed removal.... Time will tell!) and this is what it looked like when I left last night:

Today, Day 7, we hope to get the foundation tubes in, along with anchor plates, and perhaps the hoops up. But as I've just remembered that the cordless drill needs to be charged (!!) it might be a bit later than expected when we get started... Ooops. *rushes off to plug in the charger...*

Lovely Butterfly and Some Huge Gooseberries

Whilst harvesting on Thursday evening, I had the lovely and unexpected pleasure of a Red Admiral butterfly landing on my hand! It was even kind enough to stay put long enough for me to get my camera phone out, open it up and take a snap :)




And here's a couple of snaps of the gooseberries, looking suspiciously like entries for the Grapevine Virtual Show... :D You never know, we might actually get a Show to enter them in sometime soon *rollseyes*

Aside from the gooseberries (of which I got 3lbs from 2 bushes!), I also harvested half a dozen sticks of rhubarb, over a 1lb of blackcurrants, just under a lb of raspberries, another lb of strawberries, a lettuce, a cucumber, a turnip, a bag of peas, and the last of the broad beans (the rest will be left for next year's seed).

Things Growing Apace!

Everything is growing like mad now, with the downpours we've had recently helping along the veg, AND the weeds! We were already eating the over-wintered onions, now we can add garlic, lettuce, cucumber, new potatoes, peas, broadbeans, strawberries, blackcurrants, gooseberries and raspberries too :)


Carrot and parsnip bed, in need of weeding, with the newly dug over and planted up onion bed behind - it's now planted up with cos & red oakleaf lettuce, mixed salad leaves, dahlias, nasturtiums, marigolds, and 10 swedes. And all the lovely onions hanging over the fence, drying out.

The peas - Pilot (from HazelAtTheHill) and Gladstone (HSL) are starting to crop heavily now, some being munched immediately and some made it into the freezer. The broad beans (Crimson Flowered) are almost over, just a few pods left on for next year's seed.

Another shot of the newly planted bed - I was so chuffed at doing the weeding and replanting all myself that I've included it twice :) I didn't half pay for it later though, dodgy ankle is still objecting a few days later!

Man-next-door-plot is doing really well too, considering the soil is a bit malnourished... (We think his main fertilizing routine involved Growmore at regular intervals... heigh ho, he was 81 after all).

The potato bed (on the left) had muck added to it before the broken ankle, so they're doing well. The onion bed (middle bed) had some used compost added to it over winter, and has had a liberal dose of chicken pellets. The pumpkins/butternuts/courgettes (right hand bed) were planted into compost filled mounds, and the celery next to it has had chicken pellets. The big bean bed (far end) had some spent mushroom compost, some muck, and some used compost and they seem to be doing fine.

A nice crop of strawberries and blackcurrants drying out on a tray - they were picked in the rain.

A Very Productive Day

We managed to spend almost all day at the plots on Monday, and got loads done!




Jez planted lots of celery plants in Next-Door-Plot, plus 2 Butternut Squash (Waltham) a Pumpkin plant (Jack of all Trades) and Courgette (Tristan). The butternuts and pumpkin are under fleece until they get established.



The red and blackcurrants are starting to ripen, but are desperate for some weeding around them... As soon as I can kneel... :D




Brassicas are settling in nicely under the Enviromesh - Calabrese Marathon, Dwarf Green Curly Kale and cabbage Minicole




But this was my "Achievement of the Day" - I finally managed to sow some carrots! Yay! Already in this bed were 3 rows of parsnips in desperate need of weeding. So I sat down and did that first, slightly disappointed to find that out of 3 rows there was only 6 parsnips altogether :(
Never mind, 6 is better than none! After that I dug out 4 trenches, filled them with a mixture of used and fresh MP compost plus some sieved soil, and sowed my carrots! Instead of doing rows, I did mixtures of seed and broadcast sowed them, mainly because I couldn't reach to do nice neat rows. So we'll see what comes up out of; Red Elephant (HSL), John's Purple (HSL), Ingot, Red Samurai, Yellowstone, Healthmaster & Honeysnack

Over-wintered onions which we're using now. Can't remember what variety the whites are but the reds are Red Cross and I'm really pleased with them - they're getting to good sizes and only had one bolter so far. Flavour is good too! (They came from Marshalls who I had to start using when I got an Electron debit card which T&M don't accept. Grrrrrr...) But I'll be getting these sets again for next year I think :)

Potatoes coming along well, they're flowering already :) Just need the blight to stay away for a bit longer...

Here's the Amish Paste plants doing their usual impression of a sickly plant... They'll crop like mad eventually whilst still looking like they've been mistreated and malnourished!

Strawberries are coming! Just need to get to them before the slugs do...

The whole plot from the greenhouse door :)