Vegetable Garden

Looking After and Planting a Polytunnel in Winter

November 15, 2010

Looking After and Planting a Polytunnel in WinterAs a working mum with three children, an old farmhouse that’s in a constant state of renovation, a Scout group leader and a gardener, I face a constant battle with time management. Life can be a rollercoaster and trying to keep a balance a struggle at times – whether it’s washing, cleaning, cooking, typing, sewing, homework or helping whichever family or group member is shouting out the loudest.

Needless to say our house isn’t spick and span, the kids watch more TV than I’m comfortable with, the kitchen door remains unpainted after four years of adding filler to it, I regularly serve up omelets and oven chips, my filing hasn’t been sorted and put away for months and the weeds are growing in my veg beds.

So it’s with a massive sense of delight and relief when I finally tick off one of the jobs that’s been taking up head space…. and this weekend it was the polytunnel.

Looking After and Planting a Polytunnel in Winter

24th May 2009

Our tunnel had remained in the shed, still packaged in its cardboard box, for over a year before we finally erected it with the help of a few friends, on a still, warm day in May in 2009.

Looking After and Planting a Polytunnel in WinterMy in-laws had bought it as an anniversary present from Highbank Organic Farm in Cuffesgrange, Co Kilkenny and so I was pleased as punch that I’d started off several seedlings in a friend’s tunnel during the springtime so that I could immediately plant up the beds once the cover was on.

That first season we grew lovely crops of tomatoes, coriander, radishes, cucumbers, carrots, chilli’s, sweet peppers, flat leaf parsley, melons, aubergines and basil.

Looking After and Planting a Polytunnel in Winter

19th July 2009

We made parsley wine and repaired a hole in the roof of the plastic after our youngest daughter had decided to climb barefoot to the top. We also got our share of pests and diseases – the dreaded tomato blight and red spider mite.

On a wet, cold day in November I drove over to Scariff in Co Clare and attended an informative full day workshop at Irish Seed Savers about using a polytunnel throughout the year.

I came back inspired and enthusiastically cleared the tunnel of anything dead or decaying and replanted it (yes in November) with carrots (Amsterdam Forcing), Overwintering Lettuce, Broad Beans (Bunyards Express) and Peas (Onward I think, seed packets got a bit muddled!). I left the parsley, chives, radish and carrots already growing to do their own thing.

Looking After and Planting a Polytunnel in Winter

Peas growing in May 2010

Everything remained dormant for the worst of the cold winter but then as the light levels increased and the air became warmer, they started to grow and we were eating fresh peas in May.

After we harvested everything (it all grew) we planted shallots, onions, garlic, basil, more carrots, baby tomatoes, cooking tomatoes, lots of cucumbers, courgettes, french beans and sweetcorn.

The onions and garlic didn’t do as well inside (their bulbs weren’t very big) and we only picked about four chilli’s (they were in a draught), but when clearing the tunnel yesterday I harvested 10 more sweet peppers.

Crop rotation can be tricky in a polytunnel or glasshouse.  Many of the fruit and vegetables we tend to plant in them, plants that require warmer temperatures to fully mature, are of the same family, for instance tomatoes and aubergines (Solanaceae) , cucumbers and squashes (Cucurbitaceae).

Looking After and Planting a Polytunnel in Winter

Three Sisters Planting in August

Most folk I’ve spoken to just seem to move the plants around the best they can each year. Some remove the soil and add new soil the following season (a bit too labour intensive in my mind). Some grow tomatoes in containers as they’re more prone to disease (eelworm). Some take their chances and grow them in the same space each year.

Looking After and Planting a Polytunnel in WinterWhatever you chose to do it’s important to keep adding as much organic matter as possible to the soil.  It will help with drainage and subsequently moisture levels amongst other things. I appreciate it makes financial sense to keep a tunnel planted up year in, year out…. the plastic has to be replaced every five to ten years, so get the most from your money and sow as much as you can. Any of the vegetables that don’t require Mediterranean temperatures and light levels can be grown in a tunnel over the winter months, and at this time of year anything that says ‘early’ on the packet should grow for you.

Looking After and Planting a Polytunnel in WinterThere are massive temperature fluctuations in polytunnels that you have to be aware of…. at lunchtime today I opened the door and the temperature had reached 23ºC in the bright sunshine, despite falling to just 1oºC overnight.

(If you have a tunnel it’s worth investing in a good thermometer that records highs and lows.)  It will guide you as to whether you should put some horticultural fleece or newspaper onto crops to give them some added protection, or whether to water more in the summer months.

However, this winter I’ve chosen to give the soil a good rest. For the past 18 months the tunnel’s been fully productive.  I’m aware there are lots of vegetables we could be growing and sowing (see the fabulous Joy Larkcom book for all her oriental veg ideas for starters), but for the next three months we wont be sowing anything inside.

Looking After and Planting a Polytunnel in WinterOutside we still have leeks, celery, parsnips, swedes and curly kale. We have potatoes, beans, onions and garlic in storage and bags of strawberries in the freezer.

At this date in time there isn’t a food crisis in Ireland (just an enormous financial one!) – I don’t need to keep the tunnel endlessly productive.

Looking After and Planting a Polytunnel in Winter

Preparing the polytunnel beds for winter

So, we’ve cleared the beds, watered the dry earth and covered the soil with lovely, well-rotted cow manure that’s full of big, fat worms.  Now we’ll watch while nature does her job, replenishing and nourishing the soil.

In the spring time, when I’ve caught up with a few more jobs, I’ll dig out the seed packets and trays and start growing again.

I’ll also be keeping a look out in the library for Charles Dowding’s new book How to Grow Winter Vegetables, that’s due out in May, and see if I can overwinter anything next year.

I wonder what other people will be doing with their tunnels and greenhouses this year?

Looking After and Planting a Polytunnel in Winter

8 Comments

  • Reply Mr. H. November 16, 2010 at 5:22 pm

    I am a bit envious of your polytunnel, I have thought about putting our own up numerous times but worry about the heavy snow we often recieve damaging it…and we have to figure out a way to get water to the place where it would be located….someday.:)

    This year we have 7 covered rows ranging in length from 30-50 feet full of mostly kale, parsley, turnip greens, some chard, spinach, and a few other cold hardy plants.

    That Charles Dowding book looks interesting.

  • Reply Greenside Up November 16, 2010 at 7:41 pm

    Have to say I do love our tunnel. I'm not sure what to say about the snow though…. I've just added another picture to the bottom of the post of tunnel covered in snow last winter. We had to sweep the snow off daily, but that would have been the heaviest fall we're likely to see here in Ireland. I suspect you get a lot more judging by some of your pictures!

  • Reply Bec April 22, 2018 at 7:05 am

    I see this is an old post, but may I say a very useful one. I live in Tasmania, we get wet, cold winters with frosts, yet the frost doesn’t penetrate the ground-just kills what’s above ground! It is April here now and I have just cleared my poly-greenhouse of most summer plants, tomatoes mainly. I still have some bell peppers and hot peppers growing. I have planted little red onions that look like shallots but aren’t, mini savoys, some curly kale , radish, lettuce and forget what else. I landed here because I was thinking of sowing some peas. I actually have a couple of pods in the garden from self sown summer peas (Telephone, do try) but the frost will get the blossom if I sow in the garden too early.
    Anyway, I rambled on! thank you for this post,

    • Reply Dee Sewell June 8, 2018 at 11:41 am

      Thanks so much for taking the time to respond, and apologies for my delay in replying. It’s great to hear of all the produce you have growing in your polytunnel. We lost ours during a winter storm and are planning to replace and overhaul the entire vegetable garden as a consequence. Happy growing!

  • Reply sowenchanted April 25, 2018 at 10:36 am

    I loved reading this! I have a small suburban garden and I dream of having a polytunnel. I am going to measure every which way I can to see if one will fit in (even crossways) thanks for your blog, happy growing

    • Reply Dee Sewell June 8, 2018 at 11:40 am

      Thank you so much. I hope you got it sorted and have plants growing away in there now.

  • Reply Rosa Mermaid January 23, 2019 at 11:46 am

    Rather than having a large poly tunnel I have three small ones and rotate crops over three years, Tomatoes in one, sweet peppers and cues in the second and everything else in the third.

    • Reply Dee Sewell February 5, 2019 at 10:26 am

      Good idea, I’d love three polytunnels, would be tempted to grow everything in them though given our microclimate at the top of the hill.

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