We had a covering of snow overnight. The temperature dropped to -8.8c, the coldest night of the Winter, so far.
The lane to the croft was covered in snow.
We have the tropical fruit vines and shrubs wrapped up in horticultural fleece to protect them from cold temperatures. Roll on the Spring!
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Staging complete with recyclesd plastig trug and tray from an old dish drainer. We prefer to use recycled items as much as possible
Very warm in the polytunnel today even though it was only 4c outside.
Preparing the ground was not an easy task. However, we hired a man called Tom to clear the ground with a small digger which, took 5 hours to complete. Once the ground was ready we needed to dig 18 holes for the frame. Each hole needed to measure 45cm x 45cm and 45cm deep.
The north side of the ground was only 15 cms of top soil then 45 cm of rotten rock. The rotten rock is crumbly but, it needs to be broken up with a breaking bar before it could be removed. The south side was much easier with 40cm of top soil and 15cm of rotten rock. Back-breaking work especially in hot weather.
We needed to dig 18 holes 45cm x 45 cm and 45cm deep
The frame took 2 days to erect.
It took 8 hours and 6 people to fit the polythene.
At the moment we are creating the raised beds. Two thirds of the polytunnel will be used for growing vegetables and the remainder will be used as a entertaining area, full of flowers. Opposite the sitting area we are planting fruit trees and shrubs. We have a kiwi and a wisteria to trail over the sitting area. I have planted anemonies and alliums in the double raised beds. I intend to paint the beds with a nice shade of paint called “sea mist”
We have lots of work to do so watch this space!