Putting up a polytunnel in Kerry.

galwaybeginner · Posted: Wed Mar 24, 2010 2:42 pm Post subject:

Sal - ever since I put up my tunnel I've been noticing them EVERYWHERE! They must have been there before, but now I have one I seem to notice them all the time. It drives my wife nuts when we're driving around to the constant exclaimation of "Oh look, they've a big tunnel!"

kerrywez · Posted: Wed Mar 24, 2010 10:02 pm Post subject:

Hi Sal thanks for the reply and the update. If you have not got the ground that we have the job should be much easier, if we had it to do over again we would get a digger man to dig the trenches, a 1 foot bucket would be just right. I am really very tired each night after trying to dig in our ground. I had a day off on Sunday and it was great, but the thing will not put it's self up. We are getting a couple of friends to help with the plastic when the time comes.

I took a friend to the airport tonight, he will be away for quite some time, he has two tunnels, 50 ft long, they are too far away from me to go and water his plants, but another friend lives very close to his house and he is going to water the toms. The one I took to the airport told me to take the toms if he is not back in time, so I will have plenty of toms when I get the tunnel up, I was a bit worried that it might not be up in time to sow any toms, but if he is not coming back for quite some time I will have his. One variety, that I got from the organic lady, in Milltown, can be sown in December to crop in the spring, so that should be worth a try, though not if next winter is like the past one.

We are hoping to get the door frames in place tomorrow and will be glad that I do not have to dig, though having said that, we have the the side trenches done now and just have to do the short ones on each side of the door, they will be handy enough, we hope. I did get about 40 early spuds planted today, they are Homeguard, and got my two Lidl plumb trees planted also.

Thanks again Sal,

Regards Wez

sal · Posted: Thu Mar 25, 2010 5:23 pm Post subject:

gosh ,you are moving on,
i sometimes go to milltown market on a saturday,just to treat myself to the homous sold there,pricy but delicious.

kerrywez · Posted: Thu Mar 25, 2010 5:37 pm Post subject:

It was on Friday we got the seeds, the lady is open every day except Monday I believe. A asked her about the winter seeds, those for growing winter crops, and she said that they will be in later in the year, so worth keeping in mind for the winter. The seeds are not all that dear, some packs do not have that many seed in them, but with the tunnel there would be more which would germinate. A neighbour goes every week to the market, she is very much into the organic stuff, even the dogs get organic food.

Regards Wez

kerrywez · Posted: Thu Apr 15, 2010 8:02 pm Post subject:

Well after all this time we have just about got the tunnel finished. I have attached some picx of the tunnel. We are quite happy with out efforts and have great hopes for some great growing season. We have only now planted my tom seeds, but like every one else things are that wee bit late, we are hoping that with the tunnel we will have that little bit longer of a growing season for them.

We get two tonnes of topsoil and one of Horse manure amd I have ordered another ton of topsoil and two more of horse manure, that would allow us to improve the soil in the garden also.

It has been a long time in the planning and execution, but we are happy with the way things have turned out. We have got 45 tom seeds planted and loads of peas and some leeks. We have 25 strawberries planted also. so hopefully we will have loads of fruit and veg from what we have planted so far.

I will say one thing for this tunnel building, it makes you sleep very well and gets you up early also and it is hard work, when you have ground like we have, but we are so glad that we took the project on and completed it.

Thanks to everyone for their encouragement, help and suggestions. When we have some plants up and growing we will post some pics of them.

Regards Wez

galwaybeginner · Posted: Fri Apr 16, 2010 6:57 am Post subject:

Looks fantastic Wez. Well done, and happy growing!

sal · Posted: Fri Apr 16, 2010 8:05 am Post subject:

looks brilliant,well done

kerrywez · Posted: Fri Apr 16, 2010 7:21 pm Post subject:

Thanks for your very nice comments Sal and Galway. Just hope all goes well now, as my toms have been hit by blight the last three years, whilst I was growing them outdoors.

Regards Wez

kerrywez · Posted: Wed Sep 15, 2010 11:25 pm Post subject:

HI everyone have had a great success with the toms in the tunnel and even some outdoors. We grew some different ones from seed and bought 4 plants from the garden center two gardeners delight, and one each of golden sunrise, and Marmande (a beef tom).

We grew some organic toms from seed also and they are just a little late, but have had great crops from them as it is.

We also grew a load of strawberries in the tunnel, though they were this years plants and did not crop that well, but my outdoor ones, which are well established, did very well this year, even made some jam from them. My 4 year old cherry tree did very well and they were very nice, but the birds got under the netting and clean the lot. The 4 year old purple plumb did quite well also, as did the red plumb one, it cropped very heavily this year. All the trees were from wither Lidl or Aldi and this is the first year that we have had any plumbs. We had a very god crop of rhubarb and blackberries, make loads of jam from them and have a big load of blackberries in the freezer waiting to be made into jam.

The onions did very well this year also, though a friend had a very bad crop from his. The spuds did very well also, but were very late, due to the late planting and cold spring.

We had a good harvest of peas and runner beans, we did plant some beans in the tunnel, but even though they flowered they did not crop right, only some of them fruiting for us, but they take up too much room in the tunnel.

The lack of rain, here in the SW was no help, I do a bit of fishing and have not got one day on the river this year, but there is always the sea. I have never known a year when there has been more perspiration in the form of snow than there has been from rain and to me this seems to be the case. Suppose one good thing is that the grass did not need cutting as much because of the lack of rain this year.

I should have taken some pics of the tunnel and the garden before, but I will take some soon and post them on here, pity I missed the plumb harvest.

Best wishes and good luck Wez

Sive · Posted: Thu Sep 16, 2010 8:13 am Post subject:

Well done, kerrywez, it lifts the spirits to hear of all your growing success...and encourages us all to try even harder next year ! I hope you get a well-earned rest this winter !

kerrywez

Hi all, as promised I have just taken some pics of the tunnel and garden and after resizing them I am posting them. I hope that you will like them and not be too critical. Very best wishes and good luck Wez

kerrywez · Posted: Thu Sep 16, 2010 3:13 pm Post subject: More Pics

Here are a few more pics of my garden, sorry if I am being a bore and posting too many pics. Very best wishes and good luck Wez

PS I cannot add the pics for some reason, so sorry for the false alarm Wez

kerrywez · Posted: Thu Sep 16, 2010 3:17 pm Post subject:

cuemaster · Posted: Thu Sep 16, 2010 5:07 pm Post subject:

Hi
Kerrywez can you post the name of the variety that you got for spring cropping,
I will have to source them in Tip

Cheers

kerrywez · Posted: Fri Sep 17, 2010 10:25 pm Post subject: