Allotment Gardening Advice Help Chat
Growing => Growing in Greenhouses & Polytunnels => Topic started by: samnorfolk on March 01, 2013, 01:08
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Ive just made some raised beds in my small polytunnel out of pallets and have filled them with a mixture of topsoil, well rotted horse muck and compost. The beds are about 3m long by 2ft wide and 1 and half foot high. Was thinking of getting cucumbers/peppers/chillis/lettuce/spring onions/tomaotes in there does that sound about right??
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I've done similar things with my new polytunnel and was wondering exactly the same thing, what to grow(http://img.tapatalk.com/d/13/03/01/ne6esasy.jpg)
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Wow looks good i had to make the beds up myself so doesnt look quite as good as yours but all the same im thinking that what i mentioned i will get going in there!
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That looks good Plinston27, should be able to get a good head start with some tender veg. Doesn't look like the weather will get any better yet for planting outside....not in the south east anyway :(
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In my tunnel last year I grew all the things you listed, but I also grew cabbages, kohlrabi, celery, celeriac, early mangetout, early new spuds, Parthenon courgette (one in the bank in case of foul weather), melon, aubergines, Swiss chard, perpetual spinach, baby carrots, swede, beetroot. I've decided I really like doing the leaf veg like chard and perp spinach in there because the leaves are just perfect, no holes or weather damage, ditto lettuce. This year I'm going to try some curly kale in there too, plus early French beans. I also threw in a few marigolds and poached egg plants, to draw in the insects.
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that sounds great..does it matter what gets planted next to each other??
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In theory you should always do the rotation thing, but it's not really practical in my tunnel. I can only grow the tall stuff (cucumber, melon, tomatoes) on one side because I don't have equal light on both sides of the tunnel. So I'm just doing a kind of two bed rotation down each side of the tunnel, with two 4 X 8 foot beds down each side. And it's further complicated by the fact that you use a tunnel to do early crops of things then pull them up and put something else in there, all in the same year.
On one side I use one bed for spuds followed by tomatoes and aubergines, and the other bed for cukes, melons, pepper, courgette. I use the two beds on the other side to do everything else, aiming to put brassicas and related in one and everything else in the other. Fast growing salad stuff like lettuce, radish, spring onion just get fitted in wherever there's a space.
The swedes and celeriac did grow well in there but they just take up too much space so this year they'll be kicked outside. My first early spuds are already planted up in the tunnel and I've also sowed the early mangetout. Last year was my first year with the tunnel and I'm still experimenting, but so far I'm really pleased with it. The melons didn't have time to ripen last year but it was a particularly bad summer, so I'm giving them one more try this year.
The other lesson I learned was not to plant the early spuds directly into the beds. This year I've got them in polypots sitting on the beds. With only a two-bed rotation, I really don't want volunteers, and if I desperately need to get the tomatoes planted in that bed before I've used all the spuds I can pick up the polypots and move them somewhere else.
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ok sounds good my beds are about 3mtres by 2ft and i think about a foot and half deep so i dont have loads of room but hopefully enough. So im thinking in one bed cukes, toms, peppers and chillis, then on the other side perhaps parsnips (dont know how well these would grow in tunnel) courgettes lettuce/spring onion/radish could i also do garlic in there?? i am chitting some potatoes at the min but am going to use containers i made in the garden for these i think. Then ive also made some metre squared raised beds for outside which im thinking carrots in one, brocoli in one, cabbage in one and onions in one.
Then have a few pots around for herbs..am hoping it will all work out
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When I was in the UK I grew broad beans in my solar tunnel - the smell was HEAVENLY :D smelt just like vanilla!