Greetings from the Shetland Islands...

[veggieman]

Spider8 - even more snow coming your way now!

I will be sending more pics to this thread to show what the tunnel looks like - probably tomorrow morning now.

[Millymollymandy]

I'm waiting that's a really impressive polytunnel in the first photo!

[veggieman]

Good morning!

As promised, here are 4 more pics for you to look at. One shows me looking smug and happy in the first few weeks or so of having the tunnel available. Another shows it completed from the inside whilst the other two are pics from it being constructed.
I hope from these that you will get a feeling of the strength of the structure which I insisted upon when the guy was putting it up.
It was his first attempt at building a tunnel but was modelled upon an already-built tunnel that a local crofter uses.
I would have hoped to have had the tunnel earlier than I did and brought some things into the tunnel that I had ready and waiting in the greenhouse that were past the time that they should have been moved. My first-year crops have been very hit and miss but I wanted to see what would grow there. The soil in the tunnel was transported in from a more fertile part of the island and was desperately needed as, after the digger had done its work on the site first, I was just left with stoney subsoil.
I am currently planning what to grow in the tunnel next year. I have 8 big bags of potting compost I will probably spread in there so I will probably clear everything out first apart from maybe having a few lettuces growing. A neighbour kindly bought us a small bay tree which is planted in a corner as is a small lemon tree that another local was able to grow from a pip in her kitchen. I wouldn't think that I will get any lemons growing in Shetland even if the tree is in a tunnel. Still, it takes up very little space so I will see how it goes.

[Green Aura]

That's fab! No wonder you're grinning like a cheshire cat

Could you let me know exactly what that corrugated sheeting is called? Do you know if it's UV stable? Although ours is metal tubing I think we could fix the battens and extend the wooden doorway to that slatting.

I don't suppose you could do one more piccy It'd be really good to see it front on to see exactly how it all works.

[Millymollymandy]

Wow that's one serious structure! No wonder you need that windbreak there looking at the view as it's sited high up open to all the elements!

I can see the polytunnel being used for all sorts of things too, barbecues, conservatory, eating 'outdoors' etc. Well hell you already have the lemon tree in your 'conservatory' don't you? Well done and I hope you have a fabby productive year next year experimenting with it.

[veggieman]

Green Aura - It is freezing and has been snowing here so, having almost frozen my fingers off planting out the last of my garlic this morning, I won't be going outside again today. However, I will look at one of the polycarbonate sheets tomorrow and write down anything that might be on one of the labels.

As regards taking a picture "front on", the windbreak fence at either end wouldn't let me do that. there is a wooden frame at each end and it is covered with additional sheeting except where the doors are. The guy who built it, put some sort of silver foil seal (a sort of silver duct tape, I guess) around the curves between the last sheet on the top, at each end, and the sheets at the end.
Will get back to you when I have looked to see any labels that may still be there.

Millymollymandy - yes, we are up a hill overlooking the village and the coastline about half a mile away but, although the view is brilliant, it can be blowing a gale up here whilst it is only a breeze down in the village. The fencing and polytunnel bracing was, I thought, vital to adding strength to it.
If you were to visit Shetland, there are quite a few similarly-built poytunnels going up although they may not have been as strongly built as this one. An area of the northern Shetland mainland, called Northmavine, have been busy building some community polytunnels and this is a link to an earlier article before they were beginning to go up (ignore the date at the top):
http://www.northmavine.com/polytunnels.htm

[Green Aura]

Don't worry about it honey - no rush. I just got really excited at the idea of a cover that would last more than 2 winters!

[ina]

That looks like serious business - might become a prototype for all windy areas of the world?

[MKG]

I'm impressed. Before I saw this, I would have said that bending corrugated sheets that way (the "wrong way") was not the way to go. Now I can see that's simply b**lls**t. The whole thing looks like it will stand against anything the North Atlantic has to offer.

Don't go away. Keep us informed.

Mike

[veggieman]

Thanks - I'm here to stay!

[spider8]

No snow as yet, just wet and windy .
Thanks for the link, very interesting.

[chilitony]

hello from london.
looks like a nice setup.
tony

[veggieman]

Thanks, chiltony.

I was born in Hackney and worked in London, commuting from St Albans, until we moved here in April 2008.
Like being on a different planet here.

[chilitony]

i bet it is

[greenorelse]

Excellent, veggieman. Is that tubing what we over here call 'hydrodare', often used for delivering water? I'd already thought of using that instead of metal but the corrugated sheets are a wonderful innovation. You know, you could have even 'double-glazed' it!

Have you a picture (from inside) of details of the end walls, please?