31st March - The Polytunnel
This is about as exciting as it gets!
Thus far, we have dug, dug, and more 'dugging', but now we have a new toy!!
The ground had been meticulously prepared (or so we thought) and we were enthusiastically erecting our brand new polytunnel… Neither of us, neither Chris nor I (Desi) had put together or commissioned a polytunnel before, although Chris for sure had worked in a greenhouse and I had seen one from the outside and knew for sure that cucumbers like the climate in one.
The day had been well selected, no sign of rain and no wind. The recent weather hadn’t been too kind and consequently here we are almost the middle of spring with our first chance to swing into action.
After a few blind alleyways, some mistakes etc, it was done!! The two spades were a very good replacement for another pair of hands - see how well they can hold the poles?
The polytunnel looked awesome, we congratulated ourselves and staked the whole thing down with 9 stakes that looked serious enough for the job at hand - Chris had purchased those additionally because we knew we had to play it safe! We had a few buckets with soil in, so we dotted them around the polytunnel for extra weight in case the wind got up.
Although the ground was a little uneven we decided that this was enough for one day and we would sort out the finer details on another day.
In the last picture you can see the beginnings of changing over the path from grass to wood chip. We had done the same thing inside the polytunnel - use cardboard on top of the weeds/grass and then place wood chip on top of the cardboard. We hoped it would work, but having never tried it before couldn't be sure for real.
