[debih]

I am so, so pleased with our polytunnel.  My parents bought it for us for Christmas and we put it up at the beginning of March.  Our garden is absolutely useless for growing anything in - much better suited for a mountain goat - so having the polytunnel means that we have been able to utilise some of the space.  (Chickens have gone on the level below it and we do have an allotment a couple of miles away from home).

Everything has done so well in it.  It is around 10ft by 6ft so not huge by any means but ample for what we need.   I now have one raised bed down one side of it for my tomatoes and two benches along the other side for all my seedlings.  I am intending on taking at least one (if not both) of the benches away to put the pots for the watermelons and the cucumbers in the next week or so.

So far I have started off almost everything for the allotment in the polytunnel, with the exception of radishes, potatoes and carrots.  We recently moved the cabbages, cauliflowers, broccoli, broccoflower and broad beans from the tunnel to the lotty, freeing up space for the next lot.  I now have my courgettes, melons, pumpkins, parsnips, celery and cucumbers all thriving ready for planting out or potting on.  My french dwarf and climbing beans have just been moved from freezer bag to pots and hopefully the runner beans should be following suit soon, hopefully ready for planting out in June.

I love to just go up the garden and potter about in it - something I can't do with the allotment if hubby is away and children in bed.

All I need now is a chair to pop in there and it will be home from home!

[philippa55]

I agree that polytunnels are absolutely great we have one at school donated from a parent, which means the children can start stuff off a little bit earlier and get to harvest vegetables and friut before the holidays - then I take over both watering and picking. Having planted cabbages in September we are now picking a bumper crop of slug and caterpillar free greens. One mistake though this year - cauliflowers who knew they would get so big! They are shielding everything else and will have to go. Do you think they can be moved outside to beds - seems a shame last years brocolli was decimated by caterpillars before the frost finally did for them.