Polytunnel

I've been putting the polytunnel up - albeit very slowly. We decided to go for one 15.25 metres long (50ft) x 4.25 metres wide (14ft) with extra hoops and anchor plates. 22 holes I've had to dig and then I did something wrong and had to dig two up again - so 24 holes I've had to dig (lucky I spotted my error before I filled them all in). After two days all I'd done was 22 foundation poles - hadn't even got the hoops up. I was knackered. I put one hoop up to see how it looked and we had our own Wembly arch.

Well now 11 hoops, the crop bars, stabilising poles and the door frames are all in place, plus the doors are made. To get this far has taken about 4 days. The next stage is to get the the timber rails on and then put on the plastic cover - not a job for a windy day. I was hoping to have the whole thing up by the end of this week but it has been extremely monotonous, hard work and taken much longer than I thought. Depending on the weather it should be finished tomorrow.

We bought the polytunnel from First Tunnels in the UK, as they have a very good reputation. The instructions have been fairly easy to follow but I do have to keep referring to figure 1 - perhaps that why its taken 4 days. We were one pack of fixings missing but these took less than two days, after I'd phoned, to get here, which was impressive.

Various plants are waiting for the 'grand opening' - tomatoes, melons, peppers, cucumbers, chillies, aubergines and even soya beans and chick peas. Well that should fill up at least a ¼ of it! I'm sure Rosie will write more about her polytunnel.

During a thunderstorm I did make a trellis for a honeysuckle to grow up the side of the house from coppiced hazel, which I'm quite proud of.

The hens have settled in well and are now pecking their way around, but no eggs as yet. The small hens decided to go on tour through the fence one evening and now one is rather short of tail feathers as Saari nearly caught her. Fortunately no other damage was done and hopefully some additional fencing will stop the little escapologists.

This coming week, apart from finishing the polytunnel, the ewe has to be sheared and and I'll do some other odd jobs around the garden. So another relaxing week!