Polytunnel: Part 5 - The Home Straight

Thursday 26th July 2012
A dull start.

Finish the door frames and hang the doors.

Put on the timber base-rail

Insert 72 (non) self-drilling screws

Install irrigation system

Cover hoops with hotspot tape

These are the jobs which need doing before the cover can go on. The pressure is really on. I've learned that the sheer scale of this polytunnel means that, even if things go well and I work like a dog, each stage takes a good few hours.
The forecast is becoming a bit more dodgy - a North / South split with fresher weather on it's way. Fingers crossed we get the weather of the South.

Doors hung.
A long job, but worth doing properly.

View from afar.
It's a large polytunnel, but I'm happy that the scale fits in with everything else.

Polytunnel: Part 4 - The Marathon continues

Wednesday 25th July 2012
A fine start to the hottest day of the year.

Well, tomorrow is Cover Day. But I'm only about a third of the way through the instruction manual and the stables are still full of metal pipes and wooden battens!
With more Giant Meccano to assemble, then four doors to make, the door frames and the wooden base rail, this job is becoming a bit of a marathon. I have resigned myself to more deadline slippage, despite long, long days working in the extreme heat.
In fact, I'm really pushing my luck on the weather now. It's got to change soon. It may be that getting the cover on has to wait for the next spell of hot, windless weather. After all, I've only been waiting ten months for a suitable spell of weather!!

All this effort had better be worth it in the end.

The side ridges go on. Another wind protection feature.

A welcome couple of hours
building the doors out of the sun.

I've gone for double doors,
front and back,
to ensure enough ventillation.

Only trouble is,
four doors to make, not one.

It's a good thing I love working with wood.
Much prefer it to metalwork.

Last job of the day:
Make a start on the door frames.
The posts are sunk into holes and fixed to the metal door rail.
Tricky part is getting everything vertical.

Polytunnel: Part 3 - Giant Meccano

Tuesday 24th July 2012
The scorching weather continues.
Long may it last!

I made good progress yesterday, ending the day with a very satisfying colonnade of nine hoops. But when I looked in the stables most of the giant Meccano set was still there!

It's becoming apparent that Wednesday's deadline will need a minor miracle. Not to worry though, the forecast has this glorious weather lasting till at least Thursday, when the wind dies down - perfect for cover day.

After two days, at last things are taking shape.
I got the last hoop up late yesterday, too late for a photo.

These P-clips are used everywhere to fit the pipes together.
These ones cover the hoop joints and are known as the Storm Protection System,
One of the extras I purchased to protect my tunnel from the ravages of the fenland winds.

Next step: The central ridge.

Straw bales make an excellent work platform.

Very slow progress for the morning. Frustrating delays as the self-drilling screws prove not to be so well-named.
Thanks go to Don for saving the day with his extra long extension lead and metal drill bit for drilling pilot holes.

Stabilising corner bars and the top door rail attached.
The parasol is to keep the metsal parts cool.
At one point they got too hot to pick up!

Now for the crop bars.
Not a necessity, but useful
for hanging things from and attaching things to.
Also provide extra strength.

A well-deserved beer after another very long, very hot day of Giant Meccano.

Polytunnel: Part 2 - More hoops than The Olympics

Monday 23rd July 2012

The instructions clearly state that this polytunnel will be a two person job and will take two days. OK, I'm working mostly on my own, only calling upon Sue when I need three hands, so I've allowed myself three days for the frame, leaving Wednesday as the deadline for the cover. However, I'm beginning to watch the weather forecast nervously, as I think we could possibly slip back to Thursday.

The first hoop constructed.

And it fits in the foundation pipes!

Just another 14 foundation pipes to drive in,
making sure they are all vertical and level.

Taking shape.

Polytunnel: Part 1 - The Foundations

Sunday 22nd July 2012

Still summer. Just look at the sky in these piccies. And shadows too!
The polytunnel begins.
Back still bad. All holes dug very gingerly.

First job, mow the area very short, so nothing gets lost in the grass.

Step 1: dig a hole in one corner, drive in foundation post.

This is the anchor plate.
18 of these buried underground should stop the polytunnel flying away.

All that work for this!
The first foundation tube in position.

Repeat for all corners, after triple measuring then measuring again!
In a true rectangle, the diagonals measure the same.
Otherwise it's a parallelogram.
Useful mathematical knowledge.

Dig lots more holes, at 5 foot intervals.
I chose to go for closer hoops as one measure against the winds
which will buffet the tunnel out here in the fens.

Dig more holes!
I have chosen a nice flat site (not difficult)
in the most sheltered part of the garden.
Convenient to all facilities too.

A day in the meadow

Saturday 21st July 2012
The first day of the summer holidays

Devil Birds
A barn owl briefly floated over the meadow at first light this morning as a party of eight swifts shot through at amazing speed. One of my favourite birds, these all dark, screaming aerial scythes are also known as Devil Birds. One of the last migrants to reach our shores in late Spring, swifts are always in a hurry. They don't even stop and land for sex, preferring to do it mid-air (an amazing sight that I have only witnessed a couple of times). Amazingly, this morning's party of eight may well have been on their way back South after their brief breeding season foray into Britain's insect laden summer skies.
And this year, who would blame them for heading back to warmer climes early? They really can't have enjoyed their usual insect feast this year. In fact, I heard today that 11 of the 12 cuckoos satellite tagged by the BTO are already on their way back to Africa, most lining up on the northern shores of the Mediterranean, their departure dates on average almost two weeks early than last year.

The Heat Is On
But of course, we Brits know never to give up on the weather. And just in time for the beginning of the summer holidays it looks as if we may finally be getting some appropriate seasonal weather. If you've already hunkered down for winter, and who could blame you for prematurely hibernating, wake up, get outside and feel the heat!
I'm sure every gardening and veggie blog that's been bemoaning the weather just about all year will by now be celebrating the sun, the light and the heat, as will the limited selection of plants that have bravely soldiered on for weeks with little promise of reaching maturity.

Down In The Meadow
As people headed for the beaches or their allotments, I had other plans. Sue's holidays had started and I was going to make the most of it, so into the meadow we headed. It seemed the perfect day to enjoy a sip of our delicious cider ...
after a long, hot day pulling ragwort, that is!!

With the ground still sodden and the ragwort's yellow diskettes of flowers shouting out from the tall grasses, there was no time like the present. We headed in, waste deep, trowels in hand, wheelbarrow at the ready. Armed with reinforcements for the day, I decided to tackle some of the sow thistles too. Their roots give easier than the ragwort, but when I decided to grapple with a monster of a plant there was only ever going to be one winner. Well, that's what I thought until I felt that big muscle at the base of my back give a sudden twinge as something gave way to the strain. Maybe I really did get a year older yesterday!

At this point, I decided to concentrate on the ragwort, suspecting that I had a day at most to get the job done before my back refused to allow me to easily reach the ground.

When we reached the far end of the meadow, we did allow ourselves to stop and take in the beauty. There is something special about spending time in a meadow. Butterflies skipped through the air all around us, mostly ringlets at the moment, and a Marsh Harrier hunted the surrounding fields.

After a while, we headed back towards the house on the final stretch, and by the time the job was finished we were most certainly ready for a glass or two of ice cold cider.



Sue lays exhausted after the first day of her holidays!!

With renewed energy, I set to work trimming some of the lower branches from the ash trees, a treat which the pigs certainly enjoyed.

Ash - a rare treat for the pigs.

Meanwhile, Chick of Elvis has started laying again
and has left her two chicks to fend for themselves.
She doesn't even roost with them any more.

Eventually, as late evening approached, I gave up and stopped work. And that was the cue for the aching and twinging to begin as my poor back took centre stage, complaining most vigorously! I normally look after my back very well and rarely does it let me down. Right now though, I really do have too much to do. This is not a good time for an injury.

Tomorrow the polytunnel begins. I've got a deadline of Wednesday for the cover to go on. That's the first day this year when, hopefully, heat combines with not a breath of wind. The first job... Dig 18 holes. That'll test the back!

Cheers!



Friday 20th July 2012
My birthday!

I have not mentioned this before, but I do in fact hold the secret of eternal youth.
For last year I spent the whole year convinced I was 45, only to realise as my birthday approached that I had been 44 all year! Now this mistake could be forgiven once, but I've only gone and done it again this year. All year I've been 46 in my mind, so when I reached my real 46th birthday today, I did not actually get any older!

So that's now two birthdays without getting a day older!!

To celebrate we cracked open the cider which we started making back in April and I have to say we were very pleasantly surprised. I remember drinking the roughest of scrumpies back in my student days and I was expecting a repeat.
But no. The lid of the recycled Grolsch bottle popped up to reveal a clear, bubbly and sweet liquid which really was very refined. Beginner's luck I guess.

Not so the elderflower champagne though. Although the taste was delicate and summery, the fizz was disappointing. But worse than that, it had a strange, gelatinous texture, almost snotty! Most offputting. So we decided to turn it into sorbet, that is until we finally tracked down the reason for the snottiness... bacterial infection... no cure.


Ah well, one out of two wasn't bad, and neither experiment cost very much at all.
There's always next year. And we'll make enough of the elderflower champagne to turn some into sorbet too. I'm already looking forward to it.

Things to do on a wet day

Thursday 19th July 2012

 Paperwork

Ironing 

 Cleaning

Catch up with the blog

Get wet

Plan for dry days

Cook, bake, preserve

Buy things on the internet

Write lists of things to do on wet days

Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomato.
I have abandoned all hope of getting the polytunnel up in the near future.
This is a problem. For the greenhouse, until a couple of days ago, was full of tomatoes, aubergines, peppers, cucumbers and chillis. And all waiting to go into the polytunnel which is in 28 boxes in the stables!

I just love the idea of loads of colours, shapes and flavours of tomato and pepper, crops which we use day in day out and would use more of if we had them. Tomatoes, especially, are easy to store through the winter, made into sauces or passata.
After a shaky start with damping off and a second sowing, a few seeds of each variety has eventually yielded an awful lot of plants. But stuck in seed trays and not getting anywhere near enough light or heat in the greenhouse, all my indoor crops have been languishing.

Tomatoes and asparagus make
good companions

I reached this same stage last year, when I eventually planted most of the toms outside and crossed my fingers! It worked well and we had a good crop, even if we had to ripen quite a lot hung upside down indoors. Blight will be more of a threat this year, but nevertheless my straggly plants have again been put outside to cope. Already, after just a couple of days, they seem a little stronger, their roots free to spread and their leaves exposed to full light and a healthy breeze.

Tomatoes and gooseberries

like each other too.

I read that tomatoes do well planted with asparagus, in particular that the toms deter asparagus beetle. Somewhere else I read that tomatoes and gooseberries are good companions.

So that's where many of them have gone.

Hopefully when summer comes I'll be posting images of baskets full of ripe, multicoloured tomatoes.

Space in the greenhouse
I started this post with a list of things to do in the rain. I left out pottering in the polytunnel, but in its absence the greenhouse became a rather smaller alternative today. A mixture of peat-free growbags, pots and straw bales now house my crops which will hopefully start to grow now that they have space and light.

And with things a lot less cluttered I'll be able to track down the slugs which have totally decimated every single basil seedling as soon as it has germinated.

A compact space for my greenhouse crops.
But do they have time to set fruit and ripen
after a very slow start?

p.s. A Ray of Hope
When I vowed never again to moan about the rain, along came four months of rain. As I finish writing this post in which I abandon all hope of getting the polytunnel up, what should appear on the horizon but a five day forecast for high pressure, light winds and warm temperatures! When I was a child, whenever I asked "are we nearly there?" the destination was "always just around the next corner." I've learned to wait until I see before I believe.

Brassica Challenge

Red Drumhead cabbages guarded by sage and pot marigolds.

Wednesday 18th July 2012

Green, cabbagey stuff

If a non gardener asks what on earth brassicas are, here's what I tell them...

Basically, anything that tastes like cabbage, anything that children don't like the taste of! In fact, I myself only put brassicas on my plate out of a sense of duty.

That said though, maybe if I could grow my own carefully selected varieties, maybe if I learned how to cook them properly, just maybe I could get to like them.

Chic brassicas

So I've scoured the seed catalogues and plumped for: cauliflowers (I do actually like these), Romanesco, calabrese, sprouting broccoli, red cabbage, red sprouts, black kale and curly red kale. Chic brassicas. You may spot a theme of me not liking masses of green, cabbagey leaves.

Carnage

Then there's another problem. Every half-hearted attempt at growing brassicas so far has ended up in total decimation. It seems that, to the animal world, brassicas are irresistible. Pigeon peck them, caterpillars munch them, flea beetles pepper them with tiny holes, cabbage flies burrow into them, clubroot infects them...

Why bother?

Indeed, why do I bother? Well, to tell the truth I never really have, not properly. Every year I grow a few seedlings in modules, generally neglect them, constantly demote their planting sites to bottom of the list for cultivation, and end up maybe planting them out when it is too late. At this stage they get attacked!

I have tried sowing direct - kale, pak choi and Chinese cabbage, but again too many invaders to fight off.

Anyway, I persist, getting a little further each year. For brassicas are part of every rotation scheme going so I feel I really should devote a quarter of my plot to them. That sounds like a lot, but they do need a lot of space and they do stay in the ground for a very long time. And therein lies the best reason for growing them. Winter and early spring harvests of iron rich goodness.

For the moment a successful crop is something to aim for. It's a challenge which I shirk every year. When I finally get there, I'll feel like a proper, old-school gardener!!

A proud Swede-Basher!

p.s. Forgot to mention, a couple of surprises in the world of brassicas...

Radishes and turnips and swedes. (Sue, coming from The North, calls both of the latter turnips, but let's not go there! I, as an Essex boy, was traditionally known as a swede-basher! So swedes definitely must exist.)