I have a new polytunnel/greenhouse growing space and I’m so excited to share it with you….
Anyone who follows me on YouTube will know that I have shared a greenhouse/polytunnel growing space with two other enthusiastic growers for the last two years. This has been a fantastic learning curve and I’m now ready to move out next door to grow in a full polytunnel.
I have longed for a polytunnel of my own at home since I moved to my current house five years ago. I put up a greenhouse the first Summer that we were there. Well, my husband did 🙂 With some help from family. That was a labour of love let me tell ya! Especially when it was all finished except for the doors and it blew out into the field and was twisted every which way!! I cried, not going to lie. I was after investing a lot of money, and Garry had invested a lot of time and there it was lying out in a twisted mess in the field. However, with some help from my brother who was home from Australia (what a way to spend a holiday!) they got it back together and you wouldn’t know it was ever in such a mess. Anyway I’m getting side-tracked.
After a few years growing at home and gauging the ground, I knew there was no way I could put up a polytunnel at home. The ground is too wet and it’s sloped, with the only flattish area, at the bottom of said slope. Also, my garden is very windy, since it’s up on the side of a hill and very exposed. I’ll have to wait to get my dream farm to have a polytunnel outside my door.
A Greenhouse/Polytunnel without the big upfront investment
In the meantime I have been renting a polytunnel with two friends from a project where I used to actually work. The two polytunnels here were erected when I worked there and I feel I know them inside out. And while it has worked out well enough, I was ready to move on to a full tunnel. Making content can be intrusive for other people and I didn’t like filming or recording for social media, when there were others in the polytunnel with me because it’s not fair on them. They shouldn’t be made to feel uncomfortable in a space that was as much theirs as mine. So when the opportunity came up to rent the other tunnel, I took the bull by the horns and went ahead and rented it.
It hasn’t got off to a great start. I had plenty of seeds sown knowing that I was hopefully going to be moving into the tunnel for the Winter. They were in the greenhouse at home. But for the first time in my eight years growing, the four legged friends took a liking to all my lovely seeds and baby seedlings. They kept digging through my seed trays and eating the seeds. And any that they didn’t like, they just scattered them all round the place.
If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again….
I resowed twice more trying different natural methods to deter them. Someone had told me that cornmeal was good for getting rid of them but I can attest that it’s not. I even tried adding baking soda to it, as it was supposed to terminate them from the inside out. It didn’t work. I put thorny branches over the trays as it’s supposed to keep them away – no joy. Eventually, I had the brainwave to put the seed trays into my propagator – I mean it took me long enough to think of it. And me looking at it every time I went out to check on my seeds! Anyway, better late than never. Except, now the seeds are germinating and growing very slowly and it’s really too late to get a crop over Winter.
If it all goes pear shaped, we’ll call it an experiment….
So what to do with several trays of seedlings that it’s too late to plant out? Experiment. Last year my seedlings were planted out in the greenhouse/polytunnel in late October and sat all winter doing basically nothing. Eventually in the late Spring, after I had given up all hope and threatened to pull them out and replant, they started to grow. I was harvesting calabrese broccoli in late March and cauliflower in May! The lesson I learned is that plants want to grow and if I’m patient enough, I’ll get a harvest.
So for now, I’m going to leave my little seedlings in the propagator to keep them protected from the cold. But I’ll have to take them out by February, when it’s time to sow my tomatoes and peppers. Then I can plant them in February and depending on the size of them, I might get them planted earlier. I will do my utmost to be patient and hopefully I will get a harvest in late Spring/Early Summer.
Staying positive
It’s a good exercise to put a positive spin on my little mini disasters. I could lament about my growing experience this Autumn, but instead I’m saying it’s an experiment. Who says I’m late planting? I’m getting a head start for next year! That’s the thing about gardening and growing your own food – there’s no fool proof way of doing it. You have to continually experiment, make mistakes and learn. And just when you think you know it all, something comes along to knock your confidence. Usually the weather. There are so many variables with weather, pests and diseases, soil conditions, etc. but that is what makes it interesting and challenging at the same time.
Progress in my greenhouse/polytunnel so far…
Despite my seed saga, I still have lots of work to be getting on with. I had planned that half of the tunnel would be empty over the Winter anyway, so I covered some of the beds with weed barrier to keep the weeds down. The rest of the beds got covered in weeds fairly quickly since we had such a mild Autumn. They all had to be weeded. And I have been able to plant some things. I was ambitious and planted potatoes that are specifically for Winter growing to harvest at Christmas. Mine weren’t planted until October so I’m not holding out much hope. I also planted leeks that I had sown in early Summer and never planted out. I might get a harvest from these in the Spring.
Planting overwinter onions and garlic in a greenhouse/polytunnel
My garlic went into the ground in the greenhouse/polytunnel in early November. This year I just planted my own seed saved from last year. I don’t usually plant garlic indoors, and I will still plant some outdoors at home. But I’m interested to see the different rate of growth in the tunnel. I’d expect to harvest my garlic in mid July normally, so maybe I’ll get some in June this year. I have also planted out my overwintering onions. Again, these can be planted outdoors and the remainder will be planted outside. Last year I planted overwinter onion sets in the polytunnel and I got a lovely early harvest in mid May. This years planting was from seed I sowed myself in August and I’m sure they’ll behave differently from the sets last year, but I’ll expect an early harvest none the less.
Planting Prep
I prepared the bed with a little raking over to loosen the soil. The soil needed a bit of help after growing warm season crops like tomatoes, cucumbers and squash during the summer, so I added a little seaweed manure which is slightly higher in Nitrogen and then I also added Blood, Fish and Bone. I always use this to fertilise my onions and garlic. Onions especially are a heavy feeder and Blood, Fish and Bone is higher in potassium which is essential for root growth. Since onions and garlic are considered root crops, I find it ideal. Also, the high potassium helps the roots of the plant get well established. That is the goal when growing these crops over Winter – I want them to concentrate on getting well established roots and then the bulb and foliage can take off in early Spring.
Alternative ways to plant and further care
If you can’t get your onions and garlic planted outside because of waterlogged soil etc. you can also plant them in trays to overwinter, and then plant out in Spring. They’ll have had a great head start and will settle into the ground easily. I usually give another feed of Blood, Fish and Bone in early March, when the growth is ready to take off, and sometimes (if I remember) I’ll give another feed of potassium/potash in mid to late May when the plants should be starting to fatten up their bulbs.
One key piece of equipment…
Now the plan is to sit back and relax! Lol not a chance of that happening. I added this chair in the hope of encouraging me to spend lots of time here – enough time to warrant sitting down and taking a rest. They say the best medicine for the garden is the gardener and the best medicine for the gardener is the garden. It helps to relax in your space and see it from a different mindset. I don’t know – I think if I sit down, it’ll stress me out more seeing all the things that have to be done.
I would love to see your growing spaces too! Tag me in your growing space pictures on social media and I’ll be sure to share them.
