Square and level

This image gives a better idea of the slope in the garden. The GH base is perfectly level.

The holes have now been filled in and the frame is sitting on top of the tubes.  Concrete to be poured down the tubes before the weekend I hope.

Greenhouse base

In between the showers yesterday afternoon and today I managed to get all the holes bored. The plastic pipes are  800mm (31.5") long.

Next job is to make sure the frame is square and decide the level and adjust the pipes according. By adding sand inside the pipe I should be able to raise the pipe ( the sand will flow out and under ) as required. If the pipes need to go lower I should be able to bash them down.

Once squareness and levelness is achieved the holes will be filed with soil and the inside of the pipes filled with concrete.
The plan is to fill the gaps between the frame and the ground with the railway sleepers to the front and left hand side and the breeze blocks to the right and rear. Weed suppressing membrane will then the tucked under the base, over the sleepers & blocks and a suitable mulch placed on top around the outside.

The Last Post

This was the last of the 8 posts that provided the frame for the polytunnel. Took us over 1.5 hours to dig them all out.

The bare frame work.

The posts were galvanised so not too rusty but they were still not easy to extract from 2 feet of clay.
This gives an idea of how deep they were.

Technique was to dig down about a foot then add water to soften the clay.

 

I did have some help.

 

All gone.

Sleepers

The sleepers holding down the plastic are HEAVY. It is a much as I can do to drag one using the point of the mattock wacked into the end. These 2 are about 2/3rds full length. I will use them later around the vegetable beds.

 

The two full size ones, just over 100" long, I thought would be easier to move if I cut them in half. So I dragged them over the small wall that surrounds the veg plot and attacked them with the chain saw.

I them dragged them back over the plastic ready to be shifted again when the whole things come down.

I want to leave it up as long as possible to let the remaining tomatoes ripen and keep the soil mud free in case of rain.

The water butt had also been emptied and moved out of the way. The new green house well enable us to collect the water from the roof, something that is impossible to do with the poly tunnel. 

The Old Polytunnel

A few images of the old polytunnel. Clicking on a image will display a larger version.

The few from the back door. Not the prettiest structure 

A closer shot of the door which is fixed open all summer to allow ventilation. A wire mesh is placed at the entrance to stop chickens and cats getting in.

A few of the inside taken towards the sun, sorry. The posts are angle iron. The hoops and lateral roof supports are agricultural water pipe simple tied to the angle iron and tied to each other. Two wooden roof supports were added after a heavy snowfall caused the roof to collapse 4 years ago.

Tension in the plastic provided by wrapping around railway sleepers down each side.

Railway sleepers on this side partially covered in soil having removed rhubarb, raspberries and strawberries from that border.

As well as the splits in the sides the roof is rapidly degrading too.

Originally the tunnel was was twice the size it is now but so close the hedge that the end got very little sunlight and the plastic was in a very poor state. I shortened it 7 years ago. It was first put up about 17 years ago. 

The water butt has been emptied and will be moved back a few feet and to provide room for the new greenhouse.

An early shot to show the original length of the tunnel.

And one to show how high the hedge was behind the tunnel in 2008

Preparation for greenhouse, boring!

The old plastic polytunnel has more repair tape than original PVC so it is about to be replaced by a proper toughened glass greenhouse of about the same size.

The greenhouse will require foundations. the manufacturers recommend sinking 6-8 100mm (that's 4")  diameter pipe 800mm (thats 31.5") into the ground. The greenhouse frame then rests on these pipes with the legs in the centre then concrete poured in to hold the legs in place.

Obviously digging a hole that deep is quite a task so a new tool was called for. An auger. This required a test hole to see how easy, or not, it was to use.

I was pleasantly surprised how easy it was. That hole took about 20 mins to bore and only twice did I have to resort to a long handled weeding fork to dislodge a stone.

Fingers crossed that when I need to bore 8 holes like that I do not meet any tree roots.

I now have to calculate how much concrete I need to fill the 8 tubes. I will leave that to Valerie😀

Wattle fence panel

Spent an enjoyable couple of hours this afternoon with Anne making a replacement wattle fence panel. I had to drill a few holes on the railway sleepers that surround the terrain boule to hold it in place.
Mixture of popular and apple.

Final inspection

The old one

New one

Will have to make a few more soon.

Always satisfying to make something like this and should last about 3-4 years or long enough for the popular to sprout sufficient shoots to make a new one.