Last year I didn't get the full advantage of the polytunnel because it wasn't completed until June so I had missed all the early crops. This year I want to rectify that. At the moment I have a range of things overwintering in there including turnips, cabbages, winter lettuces and japanese onions but I want more!! Compostwoman on her blog said that she started plants like tomatoes in a heated propagator before putting them in a cold frame in the polytunnel. I don't have a heated propagator and there were none at the garden centre on Friday (when instead I bought lots of seeds and some first early seed potatoes). However, on the suggestion of another friend (thanks J) I have a cunning plan - to germinate my seeds in ........ the drying box. Then, once the seeds have germinated and need more light I plan to put them in the cold frame in the polytunnel and if really cold weather is forecast I may try and build a hotbed using J's donkey poo. Currently I have lettuce, cabbage, broad beans and sweet peas in there and if it works I'll start other more tender plants soon.And if it doesn't work I'll have lost nothing - there are always too many seeds in any one packet so nothing ventured, nothing gained.
What a good idea!
ReplyDeleteI will await your post and pictures with interest...
I am jealous of your polytunnel. The wind was so bad it blew the wall out of my little green house. Boy am I happy it is only a pastic one, not one with glass in it. Still gets VERY hot in the summer. So it does just as good a job.
ReplyDeleteohhh that polytunnel is vast.....
ReplyDeleteCW - I'll report back soon on the drying box experiment.....
ReplyDeleteSoL - Sorry to hear about your greenhouse but as you say - at least it was only a plastic wall. When we were in England we kept finding broken panes on our little greenhouse and eventually worked out it was in the sparrow's flightpath and they kept crashing into it. They did learn after a while!
CiG - I've waited a long time for a polytunnel so we decided if we were going to have a big one let's have a really big one. But if we did things again we would probably go for two half sized ones to give more control over temperature and humidity etc.