Polytunnel Preparation

I have dreamed of having a polytunnel for many years. While I was going through uncomfortable and painful procedures, like putting a dialysis line in my chest, I would take my mind away to walking in my imaginary polytunnel, planning out everything I would grow and where I would grow it. I would wander along the paths looking at the flowers and vegetables and smelling the freshness and the growth. It seemed unbelievable that here it was, four years later, finally on its way to me. However, before we could even think about putting it up, we had to prepare the site.

At some time in the house’s history a large tree had been felled and the trunk left exactly where I wanted to erect the polytunnel. We paid two men with chainsaws to cut the wood into manageable chunks and the farmer's son moved them, with his tractor, up to the house where they could be chopped up for firewood. That felt like a huge step forward.

We also had to get rid of the greenhouse. We put it on a free cycle site and it went within the day.

Great we thought, all we have to do is tidy up and we are ready to start, however, the ground turned out to be booby trapped with huge rocks, some of them the size of boulders. It’s a mystery we can’t solve, why would someone have buried huge stones in the ground by the gate. We asked the farmers who live opposite but they had no memory of anyone doing it or why.

Nick painstakingly dug them up and piled them on the bank opposite the stream. The goal is to use them as the hardcore for a path from the stream to the polytunnel.

It wasn't just stones; the ground gave up some interesting metal treasures. I can see one is a horseshoe but I have no idea about the others.

Finally, after heroic effort by Nick, the area has been dug over and cleared of the biggest rocks. We are ready. We have ordered the ballast and concrete to secure the foundation tubes. The ballast is waiting in the yellow dumpy bag, the concrete is in the dry container by the house. The big issue, that has just become glaringly obvious, is how much the ground slopes. The next blog explains how we dealt with the drop and managed to erect a polytunnel on a slope.