Selfsufficientish.com

Okay, so I feel very shallow posting this on the same page as "do your bit for Tibet", but I'm currently writing a new book on polytunnels called (originally enough) The Polytunnel Handbook, with Digiveg (also a forum member although almost permanently afk) which will be coming out from Green Books in Spring 2009. At the moment we're asking people to tell us a little about how they use their tunnels. If you grow artichokes in January, or have a hot-tub in there, we'd like to hear from you!

To help things along, we've prepared a .pdf questionnaire that mails the responses back to us (or if you don't like the sound of that, you can print and post it to our mail handler).

If you have a tunnel, live anywhere on planet Earth and would like to be involved, you can download it from Scribd (the download button is just above the image), but if you have trouble you can mail me at cantburp hyphen tunnels at yahoo dot co dot uk and I'll send you the form straight back.

Are you publishing it under the name Hedgewizard?

Nope - I would have been happy too but Green Books weren't keen on the idea. Instead I've been putting my name to my own blog and the Ecologist slot too. So it's "by Andy McKee and Mark Gatter" - boo!

Yep, boo indeed mate. Everyone knows you as hedgewizard in fact some of my mates who don't even post on here have heard of you as hedgey.

Hmm, was about to call green books bastards not sure if that would be entirely appropriate

Can we settle for "straights"? You never know, I might revert to HWz for the tricky second book ;-p

Come on chaps, you're the cutting edge of eco-thinking* and I want your input! Did I mention all respondents get a thank you in the book?


*God help us all

I would respond if I had a usable tunnel!

ina wrote:I would respond if I had a usable tunnel!

Ditto. No tunnel here and nowhere to put one.

However, I will be visiting someone who does have a tunnel next week and I will ask her if she'd be willing to help.

Ooh, thanks. Actually tunnels go right down to 6'x8', costing just over half the price of a comparable aluminium and steel greenhouse. I'm not selling them you understand - I just reckon they're the canine's dangly bits in some respects.

Ina - didn't I hear you mention one on NEEPS a while back? What happened to it? Or did I dream that?

hedgewizard wrote: Ina - didn't I hear you mention one on NEEPS a while back? What happened to it? Or did I dream that?

There's an old tunnel here on the farm that I have been using the past couple of years; unfortunately it's rather drafty, and last year I didn't manage to grow anything in it... (Half a dozen green tomatoes, of 8 plants.) It would cost quite a bit to repair it (tried DIY, but the wind took it off again). As it's not mine, and likely to be pulled down as soon as I've invested money in it, I've given up. I do have a mini greenhouse (one of those lean-to ones, that takes two growbags or the equivalent), and if I really kick my behind, I'll get it up this year!

My advice is ask if you can take it down. That way you can stash the frame, which is the expensive bit, and re-erect it with a new film when money allows (door frames can be made out of anything). The beauty of tunnels is that you don't have to use all the sections - if you take down a 36' tunnel with 6' spacings you can make anything from 12' to 36' out of it!

(and don't base anything on last year - the temperature in a polytunnel is governed by the hours of sunlight it gets, and look what happened last year)

hedgewizard wrote:My advice is ask if you can take it down. That way you can stash the frame, which is the expensive bit, and re-erect it with a new film when money allows (door frames can be made out of anything). The beauty of tunnels is that you don't have to use all the sections - if you take down a 36' tunnel with 6' spacings you can make anything from 12' to 36' out of it!

(and don't base anything on last year - the temperature in a polytunnel is governed by the hours of sunlight it gets, and look what happened last year)

Yeah, I know - it was a particularly bad year... And it does get a bit warmer in there than it is outside! Well, when time allows, I shall ponder this problem. I'll probably end up with loads of plants again that I don't know where to put and will have to use it in the end. There are still last year's surplus celery plants in there... (Can you use it dried? )