Today my bank account is feeling a little lighter as I’ve been making some ‘infrastructure investments’. I’ve been on the First Tunnels website and ordered both a polytunnel and a ‘fruit cage’. It is the same company we bought our Oxford polytunnel from, which was still going strong the best part of a decade later when we moved.
Once everything arrives, the first job will probably be putting the cage up at the allotment, which will get it out of the way. It won’t actually be used for fruit but will give me a walk in area, about 4m2, where I can grow veg with more protection from animals and birds. I haven’t seen a lot of problems with my crops but I have seen signs of digging and a few young plants have been damaged. It will be easier to look after than smaller frames which each need separately uncovering when it comes to tasks like watering, weeding and harvesting.
Next, our back garden polytunnel will have to come down. As I’ve mentioned before, the cover is shot but the frame will go up to the allotment and that will become a fruit cage. I probably won’t put netting on it until the spring but I’ll then be able to get some fruit bushes planted within its boundaries.
Finally, by which point the tomatoes will probably have finished harvesting, I’ll be able to work on getting the new polytunnel up in place of the old one. I’ve had to go for a slightly smaller footprint as First Tunnels uses imperial sizes (like 8′ and 10′) although sold with metric equivalents. The old tunnel is 2m wide and 5m long but the new one is 6′ by 12′. If you do the conversion, that means we loose a few centimetres of width and a bit more on the length. I’ll have to make some adjustments to the growing beds but we’ll end up with about the same growing space inside and just a slightly narrower path in the middle. Some of the gardening paraphernalia taking room at the moment can find a new home in my allotment shed and some can make use of the staging bars built into the new polytunnel.
So, ground works to come this autumn and then plenty of more fruitful seasons growing to enjoy.