The Polytunnel Handbook - Softcover

Mark Gatter; Andy McKee

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1900322455 ISBN 13: 9781900322454

Publisher: Green Books (UK), 2008

Synopsis

A comprehensive guide to all aspects of polytunnel usage, from planning your purchase to harvesting the rewards.

A polytunnel, high tunnel or hoop house, can be used as an affordable, low-carbon aid to growing your own food all year round, from crispy salads and fresh vegetables in the dead of winter to juicy melons and mouth-watering grapes in high summer. But once you’ve decided to invest in a polytunnel, there are many questions to be answered...

Do you need planning permission? What are the different sizes and types you can buy? Where should you put it, and how do you put it up? What can you use it for, how do you look after it, and what are the likely problems?

The Polytunnel Handbook looks at all aspects of using a polytunnel, from planning to harvesting. The book features a step-by-step guide detailing how polytunnels are put up and maintained, and also detailed instructions on building a polytunnel from scratch for DIY enthusiasts. There are also chapters on developing healthy soil and preventing pests, and a jargon-free guide to the range of often mystifying accessories that many tunnel retailers offer.

Learn how to keep your polytunnel productive in every season with this brilliant guide

About this title

About the Author

Andy McKee first grew vegetables with his father at the age of fie. He had his eyes opened to the potential of poly tunnels during a visit to one featuring a hot tub warmed by a clay oven. Using his polytunnel, his family are entirely self-sufficient in vegetables.

Mark Gather began growing vegetables while homesteading in North California in the early eighties, and has been a keen gardener ever since. He relies on a polytunnel to keep fresh food on the table right through the winter. He has his wife share their smallholing in Wales with sheep, chickens and dogs.

From the Back Cover

A polytunnel can be used as an affordable, low-carbon aid to growing your own food all year round, from crispy salads and fresh vegetables in the dead of winter to juicy melons and mouth-watering grapes in high summer. But once you've decided to invest in a polytunnel, there are many questions to be answered, including:
- Do you need planning permission?
- What are the different sizes and types you can buy?
- Where should you put it, and how do you put it up?
- What can you use it for, how do you look after it, and what are the likely problems?
The Polytunnel Handbook looks at all aspects of using a polytunnel, from planning your purchase to harvesting the rewards, and includes a step-by-step guide detailing how polytunnels are put up and maintained. There are chapters on developing healthy soil and preventing pests, and a jargon-free guide to the range of often mystifying accessories that many tunnel retailers offer. For the DIY enthusiast there is a full set of instructions for building a polytunnel from scratch, and the authors explain how to keep your polytunnel productive in every season.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

The Polytunnel Handbook

By Andy McKee, Mark Gatter

Green Books Ltd

Copyright © 2010 Andy McKee and Mark Gatter
All rights reserved.

ISBN: 978-1-900322-45-4

Contents

Introduction, 
Chapter 1: Planning your Purchase, 
Chapter 2: The Big Day, 
Chapter 3: Self-build Tunnels, 
Chapter 4: The Tunnel Environment, 
Chapter 5: Planting Through the Year, 
Chapter 6: Preventing Pests, 
Chapter 7: Thinking Outside the Tunnel, 
Afterword, 
Appendix 1: Further Information and Suppliers, 
Appendix 2: Further Reading, 
Appendix 3: Glossary, 
Index, 

CHAPTER 1

Planning your Purchase

A step-by-step guide from first thoughts to ordering

Having made the decision that polytunnel ownership is for you, the temptation is to rush off and order one straight away. Catering for customers who do exactly that, there are some friendly-looking sellers around who keep everything looking very simple and offer you a choice of only a few different kits. Don't be fooled; this simplicity is for their benefit, not for yours. At best you will miss out on some of the choices that make polytunnels such a flexible asset: at worst you will end up with a completely unsuitable product.

On the other hand, approaching a polytunnel manufacturer directly can leave you bewildered by the range of products and accessories on offer: different films, different ventilation strategies and a choice of door options, to name but a few. In reality these things are only confusing if you are not clear about exactly what you need from your polytunnel, and that's why there are a few things to consider before you're completely ready to go ahead.

Planning permission

The very first thing you need to think about is whether anything is likely to prevent you from putting a tunnel where you would like to put it. You should contact your local council's planning department to find out if you need planning permission. Despite controversy over larger commercial applications, at the time of writing single-span tunnels for domestic use don't need permission in most areas, but the position varies depending on where you live; in Andy's stamping ground in West Dorset, for example, you don't need permission unless the structure is concreted into place or connected to mains services. We would advise anyone who is told that they need permission to ask for a copy of the relevant guidance that the planning officers follow, since there is often confusion between the rules for domestic use and those for commercial growers.

There is also a layer of more local bureaucracy to consider before you go any further. If the polytunnel is on your own property, this just means checking to see whether there are any restrictions written into your deeds. This is unlikely to be a hindrance, but if you are considering erecting the tunnel on an allotment, then there will probably be specific rules that you will have to follow. While you need to be aware of what these rules say, don't speak to the allotments manager until you have a better idea of just what you would like to do. Nothing is more likely to produce a negative reaction than vagueness on your part.

Decisions on use

Now it's time to ask yourself a very simple question, but one that often goes unasked; what exactly do you want to use your tunnel for? This question will strike at the very heart of your installation. All subsequent questions – where the tunnel will be sited, what size it should be, whether water will be needed – hinge on what you intend your polytunnel to do. For example, if you intend to use it to bring on hangin

Edition details

• Publisher: Green Books (UK)
• Publication date: 2008
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1900322455
• ISBN 13: 9781900322454
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 128