[rachelr]

help i need advice. My OH who has been growing things all summer andbeing the dutiful wife I have cooked and mopped his brow. He is now asking for a poly tunnel. What a cheek and I have not been to the hair dressers in months!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

All joking aside we have the room but not the finances for a green house. The question here is do we save for a green house or do we invest in a poly tunnel. How would they withstand the windy weather and can we grow wat we did this year in the poly as opposed to the green house!!!!!!!!!!

[drmoonshine]

my personal view is

save for a greenhouse a good poly can cost the same as a green house. at the end of the day if your going to get a cheap poly ad put it up now it could blow away get ripped. it does happen.

poly tunnles big ones anyway in my view dont last all to long if i get a season out of mine then im happy wih that. a greenhouse on the other hand can last years and years. it has a much better structer. the positives far outway the negitives with a greenhouse.

if your planting now just use small polys to just cover your veg or coldframes. and next year or later this year get yourself a greenhouse

[Yorkie]

I don't have either, but I was going to post along the same lines as drmoonshine.

A decent polytunnel can cost a fair bit and I'd have thought is potentially more vulnerable to weather / harder to repair.

[joyfull]

try asking on your local freecycle site - thats where I got my greenhouse from 

[fatcat1955]

1 advantage of a poly is that you can move them around the plot easier to avoid soil sickness.

[rachelr]

mmm would seem by the answers that maybe heis gonna have to be more patient and stopp spending all his pocket money!!!!!!

Ok time to get the money box out and save.

ps joyful i will tey on free cycle but apparently I get beaten to it all the time now I know who beat me!!

[arugula]

We have a homemade polytunnel in our garden. A decent, properly constructed polytunnel can easily withstand high winds (I live 100 metres back from the Atlantic shoreline). It also needn't cost the earth. You can source quite a few of the materials for little or no money if you look around. There is a collection of useful links right here on this forum.

Plenty info. on buiding your own....

[Kristen]

I got my two greenhouses on eBay. Depends on how far you can travel to collect it, and how large a vehicle you have - apart from the main horizontal struts (which stuck out of the back door) we got everything else in our people carrier - and that was a 30' greenhouse, 5 years old, and for which I think I paid £ 400.

Details and pictures on my blog if of interest

[joyfull]

mmm would seem by the answers that maybe heis gonna have to be more patient and stopp
ps joyful i will tey on free cycle but apparently I get beaten to it all the time now I know who beat me!!

I just placed a wanted ad on freecycle and after a couple of weeks got a reply from a lady whose daughter had just moved into a place and having a toddler didn't want any glass around so they gave us the greenhouse and loads of spare glass - we had to dismantle and now we have to remember how it goes back together - so if you get one either label it or take photos 

[savbo]

I am in the embarassingly lucky position of having 3  greenhouses. No. 1 was bought off one of the Friday trading websites, was checking  about 6 sites daily and got in before anyone else - £50 for a 10x8 but it cost £60 to hire a van and £20 in diesel to get to Doncaster and back. No 2 was an 8x6 off Freecycle. Both of those were for the allotment. No 3 was a 6x6 for the back garden, got it for a bit under £100, great condition with 2 cold frames and staging thrown in....

it's worth persevering...

M

[Stevens706]

Also check out your local small ads, always seem to be greenhouses in ours. However you will have to collect it and probably buy some new glass.

[Swing Swang]

Points in favour of a PT:

You can move it around as had been mentioned
Once the plastic is no more you can convert it into a brassica or fruit cage with the purchase of the right size of netting/scrounging debris netting
Over the next five years you can save for a GH (or source one from freecycle etc)
The moving of the PT will help you decide where you want to put the permanent GH or will make you realise the a moveable structure is more suited to your sort of gardening/veg growing

SS (who manages quite well without PT or GH, but who uses lots and lots of home-made cloches)

[mumofstig]

if you are thinking of the green plastic covered ones advertised here and on e-bay, be aware that the cover on mine became porous (so that it rained inside the polytunnel )
in its second summer
Mine is quite sheltered in the garden but is still  tied to trees and hedges to stop it blowing away, and I have had to mend the frame after strong winds

They are really only a short term stopgap, at best  :blink:

[arugula]

if you are thinking of the green plastic covered ones advertised here and on e-bay, be aware that the cover on mine became porous (so that it rained inside the polytunnel )
in its second summer
Mine is quite sheltered in the garden but is still  tied to trees and hedges to stop it blowing away, and I have had to mend the frame after strong winds

They are really only a short term stopgap, at best  :blink:

In general?

[mumofstig]

IMO....yes, the cheapo ones are only stopgap........................ DIY jobs or better quality ready mades are great additions to the plot though