[Dantheman]

hi guys,

I've had my plot now for just over a year, the first year has been hard to say the least, i have a good size fruit cages all set up just need transferring from pots. a good sized green house, 4 raised beds 8'x 6' out side, a few smaller beds, as from a few days ago i'm now a proud owner on a polytunnel

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/110674994563?ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1439.l2649

i'm looking for some advice please.
 
i am hoping on getting it put up in between Christmas and the new year, it's new home/space on my allotment is 6 x 3m  clearing, it's ready to go, the questions i have are:-

Do i dig a trench for the frame and the cover to sit in and refill it? if so what death do you recommend? the site can get windy at times (my green house has survive so far).
My soil in heavy clay, i have manure to dig in.

Can anyone suggest any way of having the layout inside?

I'm planning on collecting the run off water in a tank or water butt on the opposite end of the entrance outside which feeds a smaller one inside.

Any help would be much appreciated pictures would be cool.

Thanks Guys and a Happy Christmas lets hope the grow seasons improve. :blink:

[carlrmj]

 I bought a similar one 4.5x2m.
 
 I put up the frame , then dug straight down 6inches all around the footprint of the greenhouse,and a spade width.

 The frame is only 19mm tubing, where they join I used duck tape to strengthen it, and make sure they don't come apart.

 I also put posts in and taped them to the inside of each leg ,to make it more secure from strong winds.
 The cover was put over the top and pulled tight ,then burried in the  trench,and bricks on top of that.
 The problem I had was with the plastic teeth on the zip not interlocking.
 I placed mine door  facing south .
 I don't know how you will collect run off water, as I dont think you can put guttering on.
 Mine has been up 2years and has taken some battering from the wind,but is still holding up.There is a lot of condesation in a plastic greenhouse though.

 Cheers Carl
 
   

[CDave]

You can buy a plastic stick on gutter for polytunnels

http://www.polytunnelcovers.com/polytunnel-guttering/tunnel-gutter.html

Haven't used - so cant vouch for them. Hope this helps.

[allotmentann]

Definitely don't skimp on digging the frame in. We dug down a foot on the two current tunnels I have worked on. (The original tunnel blew away several times, even though the cover was heavily weighted and the frame secured with ground anchors). The frames are also doubly secured inside with bungee cord and super strength ground anchors from this company (their ground anchors are fantastic!).
http://www.spirafix.com/
We have also covered the frames with hot spot tape. So far it has worked really well and has withstood some pretty strong winds. Someone else's tunnel ended up upside down on our plot though! They hadn't dug the cover in.

[bailey]

we built our own poly,,  after trying a used frame one on a windy site,, we learned that you can never go deep enough if the site is windy,,  so the one we built from scratch we managed to get hold of some old sleepers and wrapped the poly around these and then buried in a trench,, its now a few years old and apart from a partial collapse due to heavy snow, its still standing as good as new..

as for layout i think it all depends on what you are planing to grow,, I found with the first poly that we had a bed down either side and stuff planted directly in to the soil, it dried out too quick, and would need replacing fairly often.. I use mine to grow toms,peppers chillis, ect that i leave in large pots,, i have a water proof membrane on the floor which is fastened up each end and sides, then a bit of gravel on top and i just top this up with water rather then water each pot.  we also have a door either end that gives better ventilation when needed.  down the middle we have a narrow raised bed that we grow lettuce,spring onion,radish ect..

[mumofstig]

I had a smaller version of those, and the frame buckled in the wind, rather than the cover blowing away. It was repaired several times with gaffatape and odd pieces of metal rod or angle iron, over a couple of years 

The cover also only lasted 2 years, with the little poly pieces between the green strengthening threads, just falling inside the greenhouse whenever it rained, making a self-watering tunnel 

I do hope you have better luck with yours................

[Dantheman]

Hi Guys,
I hope you all had a good Christmas, thanks for all your help, i will keep all you suggestions in mind i will also keep you posted with some picks once i get it up,  i will be starting in the new year now as need to try to get some of those anchor bars sorted out a wait for a friend to become free.

thanks again.

[Ema]

I'm not allowed sheds or polly tunnels on my plot but I'm hoping to put a few large coldframes up big enough to house small toms etc  :blink: all these comments will be most helpful in my plans thanks