We were expecting rain today but so far only a tiny shower, not enough to do any good. This shower arrived at the very moment that I and a friend had climbed on the back of the potato planter to put in 6 rows of spuds on the field. After a disastrous year in 2012 when we had a really poor crop, we were debating if it was worth the bother to grow any maincrop this year. Then when we ran out of spuds in February and bought a sack full which cost £12 !!!( NEVER EVER has a sack of potatoes cost that much in the past) we decided we would grow some main crop after all. Our early and second early go in the garden beds and are cosseted with fleece over them, but maincrop go out on the field along with pumpkins and squash that all take up too much space in the garden.
After a deserved cup of coffee and whilst the sun was still behind the clouds we got all the tomatoes and peppers (chilli and sweet) planted into the new poly-tunnel. So now everything is out except for a few late sown tomatoes.
So here we have the three tunnels. The " Baby" was bought when we first came here 21 years ago, the frame for "Mummy" was purchased for £10 from a cousin of a sister about 16 years ago and now "Daddy" - with the frame given us by a friend who just wanted it out of their way.
Baby has been re-covered twice. Mummy has only needed re-covering once so plastic will last way longer than the manufactures say if it's in a sheltered position.
The two oldest have earned their keep a dozen times over with the stuff we've grown, sold and eaten from them and I expect the new one (plastic plus hot spot tape was £174) will pay for itself in just this one year.
All the sticks in Daddy poly are broom handles salvaged from amongst a whole load of broken pallets chucked out by a company that we are allowed to clear to use on our woodburner and Rayburn. Him Outside knew they would come in handy for something!
