HOME & GARDEN Tales from a kitchen Gardener The polytunnel takes shape. t30garden2no
Digging and rigging U
p to my knees in a hundred tiny pieces and an enormous plastic sausage there was no es- caping reality - the poly- tunnel had arrived. As a novice gardener I was completely overwhelmed and, after lengthy sucking of teeth, scratching of head, boiling of kettle and scouring of Bernard Salt’s ‘Gardening under Plas- tic’, my husband Matthew and I, dug out four 1.5 by 6 metre soil beds which, according to Bernard, would allow us to practise crop rotation. With an impressive 15-ton ca- more deft and manoeuvrable digger than Molly, our Jack Russell so I enlisted the help of Matthew with his Kubota.
In went trailer-loads of gar- den compost, rotted manure and topsoil, roughly a third of each, although nobody was counting. In our situation, with possible 80mph gales in win- ter, we decided to cement the steel hoops into the ground. All I needed now was a water source, some electricity and disco ball for some levity. Time to clothe the frame in polythene. Don’t try this on your own - think wrapping
by Yvonne Anderson, Melfort House
Yvonne Anderson runs Melfort House, near Kilmelford, where she has erected a polytunnel to grow fruit and vegetables, including French beans, strawberries, chalots and chillis, for her guests and her family. With no background in gardening, the project has been a steep learning curve for Yvonne but, come success or failure, every month West Coast Review will follow her efforts through her new column. This month, the polytunnel takes shape.
pecially when the lure of a free beer may entice your kindly neighbours. Do this on a warm day when it’s pliable, a super- taut cover can last three years After a good deal of colourful language and some bend- ing, squeezing, unfolding and stretching - I was at my Yoga class - it was up, complete, erect, looking like a polytunnel.
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