Polytunnel Gardening
How to garden and stay dry in august…
A polytunnel is an essential piece of kit for a kitchen gardener in England. Forget the fact that you can grow nearly anything in one, they keep you dry in the middle of an English summer.
After two hours spent digging up the last of the garlic, potatoes and summer squash in a continual fine rain the heavens really opened and signalled my retreat into the polytunnel.
A polytunnel allows the gardener options otherwise near impossible, since I have had mine I have grown a number of Asian herbs and vegetables, chillies, tomatoes, gherkins, peppers, melons, exotic fruits and salads. They offer both heat and protection and allow the gardener to start and end the growing season long before and after the climate outside allows.
A real plus is being able to pick salads and herbs through the winter months, last December I enjoyed a prolonged harvest of crisp lettuce, brightly coloured chard and the whole tunnel was perfumed with a healthy savory plant. In the height of summer (if we get one) it is a place for the brave (or foolhardy) with temperatures reaching 35-40 degrees C with the tomatoes seemingly ripening before your very eyes.
As much as I enjoy the fruits of my labour during the summer it is the Spring and Autumn which are my favourite seasons in the tunnel. It is a place to see the first tiny shoots, to grow on the tender young plants from the propegator and finally to dig up the end of summer harvest. A place to escape the chill with a cup of tea and a world away from the everyday stresses life brings.
Here are two photographs from the same tunnel but a year apart. On the top are vine tomatoes bursting with flavour from the summer of 2006, below a shot depicting the awful summer of 2007 and my dark mood at putting my mobile phone on boil wash with my chefs whites.
Miles,
I’m extremely jealous !
I would love a good sized polytunnel myself. I wold go down that route but being a newbie kitchen gardner I’m hamstrung by inexperience and space !
Love the B&W shot
August 20, 2007 @ 9:17 am
mobile phone on boil wash with my chefs whites
Oh dear ~ ~ ~ don’t call us, we’ll call you.
I bet your polytunnel got well dug over!
You are right about the need for green houses and/or polytunnels in our climate. All Growers shown on TV appear to have them. Would you say that they are less work than a greenhouse or just an alternative, apart from size of course?
August 20, 2007 @ 2:00 pm
Christine,
The main difference is that in a polytunnel your produce can be planted straight into the ground eliminating the need for containers or grow bags. They give you more options in terms of ground space and growing taller plants such as cucumbers where the canes can be secured against the tunnels cross bars.
As for my phone I am now using an older model which is quicker and easier to use-wish I’d never bothered changing in the first place!
Miles
August 20, 2007 @ 2:19 pm
Hi Miles ,
“Ring-Ring”, ( bad telephone joke).
I would love to own one of these polytunnels, preferably though set in a couple of acres behind a cottage in rural France.
Takes me back to when I was a child, my grandfather had a large greenhouse in the garden, one of those well built jobs, quality wood frame painted white with well fitted glass and a boiler with all the heating pipes, etc. I can still remember the smell of the tomatoes. I think also he used it for bringing on early cauliflower plants, etc, though I may be wrong, my horticultural and gardening skills are not that great. The one thing I can remember though about the greenhouse as a child, was how good it was for digging holes in when raining outside, funny how things trigger childhood memories, I must have been about six or seven years old at the time. My grandfather used to moan like hell, when he walked in the greenhouse only to find his number one grandson had spent all day digging a bloody great big hole for him to fill back in ….. Funny that, as I get older, at times I am still digging holes for myself, only bigger!.
August 20, 2007 @ 5:20 pm
Miles,
Boiled phone is so not your style, lightly steamed with eastern dressing perhaps
Such is life in the fast lane, all glamour and polytunnels.
Seems your ‘regulars’ are lacking in this department. We’ll all be measuring up to see if we can squeeze one in. Trouble is at chez Cid there’s not much room for additional garden features and by the time I’ve customized it, no light would get through and the galley kitchen/bijou sun lounge might encroach into the growing bit!
What use is a man who can’t make caramel shapes and doesn’t have a polytunnel, I ask you
Cid
August 20, 2007 @ 5:47 pm
Cid,
Polytunnels do take up a lot of room but think of the possibilities; a steam room/sauna/sunbed all in one!
Thanks for the ‘bigup’ re the caramel and tunnel ownership-I didn’t realise women were so attracted to such credentials. I shall stop hanging around outside the local W.I. meetings and try something a little younger!
Miles
August 20, 2007 @ 7:00 pm
SC,
Thanks for your amusing ditty-I hope you didn’t choke when laughing at my misfortune.
I am glad that you mention the smell of tomatoes, they have a very individual smell and I am sure there are many of us who can recall a relative who owned an allotment and/or greenhouse and the smell of the plants can bring memories flooding back.
I think it’s a pity that that type of memory is becoming increasingly limited to a certain generation, after all what memories can be gleaned from a pack of unripe dutch tomatoes or a vac pac bag of broccoli florets?
Miles
August 20, 2007 @ 7:08 pm
Rod,
You’ve got the space at Goldenlands, as for the experience-I know a good ex-engineer who put mine up!
Miles
August 20, 2007 @ 7:14 pm
Miles,
I think there are a lot of people out there who would love to have a decent sized garden, greenhouse or allotment, for the purpose of growing
their own produce. I mean the TV stations have all been awash with programmes that promote the river cottage style of living, for most though in this generation and the next even a small garden will sadly only ever be a dream, no river cottage. I mean where does the land come from to grow your own produce on, allotments are being sold off for housing and the houses built on the allotments have no garden, even an average £200.000 house has little or no garden, so what chance do people have. You have to laugh, I mean the government rattle on about peoples eating habits, school dinners and the strain on the health service caused by poor diets. Would it not help if the government made more land available to the general public. More land and I am sure we would see a change, not an overnight change in this generation, but I am sure one that will be seen in the next. We need more allotments, more rural housing, yes houses built with a decent sized garden in the country, people need to be encouraged to move out of the cities, improve public transport and this could easily be done. Who knows one day such a thing may even help to save an entire generation of people in this country, especially as the worlds natural recourses are running low, who knows what is going to happen in the future, I mean in time people may have to go back to living entirely off of the land as we once did. Why not start now and use some of the acres and acres that the tax payers of this country subsidise every year, that is doing nothing.
August 20, 2007 @ 8:04 pm
SC
Why would you want to be in a polytunnel in France unless you are hiding from the french speaking locals or dreaming of good old England? You could find a polytunnel near you, or visit Miles, sit in his polytunnel with a bottle of Bordeaux and dream of France!
August 20, 2007 @ 8:15 pm
Miles,
David Bailey always had someone glamorous hanging on his arm and I doubt he could rustle up a caramel delight or indeed this season’s must-have, a polytunnel
August 20, 2007 @ 8:27 pm
SC,
An excellent comment, I’ll tell you what buggers the ozone layer up-hot air. Everyone’s full of it, they want our kids to eat good food yet encourage huge supermarkets to set up and flog cheap, force grown rubbish and water pumped chickens at next to nothing prices. You are right about allotments, there are plenty of people out there who cannot get a plot for love nor money and my local council should be ashamed of themselves. They have done nothing to support the local allotment community and when you look at the fabulous plots in the inner cities such as Birmingham for example it is truly annoying. If they helped the existing allotment holders they could create a nice, safe environment for school kids to visit as part of their education and see exactly how real food is grown. Fresh air and education-it would never take off!
Thanks SC,
Miles
August 20, 2007 @ 8:45 pm
Cid,
I would gladly drop the caramel for a Jean Shrimpton look a like. Knowing my luck I’d get the original-at 80!!
miles
August 20, 2007 @ 8:47 pm
Christine,
The polytunnel would be in the back garden of my French cottage ( “dreaming again” )
For hiding in I would get a quality shed with a lockable door.
August 20, 2007 @ 11:42 pm
Hallo Miles,
sorry for writing in german, but there is still italian language on my mind…
Super Fotos, super blog! Grosses Kompliment - bin begeistert. Und werde immer wieder rein schauen und mein Englisch aufbessern
Habe bei meinen Tomaten (sonst konnte ich nach dem Umzug noch nichts anpflanzen) wildwuchs - ohne Plastikhaube. Tomaten schmecken aber auch ganz gut - werde mir gerne Deine Anregungen zu eigen mach. Herzlichste Grüße - Silke
September 5, 2007 @ 12:56 am
Hi Silke!
Vielen dank fur deine worte, das war sehr nett von dir. Es tut mir leid fur mein schlecht schrift-ich kann keine umlaut an meinen computer finden!
Es ist gut das du bekommst frische tomaten ins deinen garten, aber ich denke das der wetter ins Sardinia sind ein bichen besser fur tomaten und frucht.
Ich hoffe das du kommst zuruck zum meinen blog-ich muss mit meinen Deutsche kochs sprechen ein bichen mehr erstmal!
Alles gute und danke noch einmal.
miles
September 5, 2007 @ 9:59 am
Ciao Miles… ja, Sardinien… Ende September bin ich nochmal 3 Tage dort…. Zu den Tomaten ist das hier alles kein vergleich, und vieles andere auch nicht… die Luft fehlt, seufz. Mein Lieblingssorte heisst übrigens “Camona” ist eine sehr frühe Sorte… Vielleicht bekomme ich irgendwo mal Samen her, ist aber schwierig…
))
Komme sehr gerne wieder zu Deinem Blog, ich koche ja auch sehr gerne… und haben immer “Wissenshunger”:-)
Ich verstehe Dich auch ohne Umlaute sehr gut
Bis bald - alles Liebe und weiter so!!!!!!!
Silke
September 6, 2007 @ 11:19 am
Hola Silke!
Ich hat alles was du hast schreiben verstehen (allein und ohne Anne, Gott sei Dank!) Ich hat zwei leiblings tomaten; ‘Roma’ eine Italianische sorte und ‘Bananan’ das ist auch eine Italianische ‘plum’ tomaten aber gelb und susse (?)
Wissenshunger sind der beste hunger aber bier hunger sind gar nicht so schlect!!
Alles gute,
Bis spate und viel spass ins Sardinia
Miles
September 6, 2007 @ 7:32 pm