Kitchen Garden Forum

Mine is First as well. A lot of the companies are fairly local to me (First, Premier, Northern) so I visited them all and was most impressed with the product and the helpfulness of First. I can tell you how I modified things to help with ventilation when you get that far, I might have posted photos in the past I'll have to check.

Thanks Stephen, still can't get over the guilt of such an extravagant purchase - mind I thought the net tunnel was extravagant too but was just money down the drain & ultimately wasted. I had a green kite as well Robo, although I think mine was a green space shuttle as made quite a distance as never been seen again so probably orbiting!

Clue: It doesn't have a pleated front around the door.

Mine is a Northern but does have pleats. So not the one you are getting. It's been up for 18 years and still going strong. Mind you the polythene needs to be very taught otherwise it won't last that long.
Best of luck with yours, I'm sure you will love it.

I think I am driving them mad with questions. A bit of a case of research overload & blonde moments. To date they are very courteous in their responses but I have a fair idea of the chit chat after they read my e-mails as we all make them in the office when that one person just wants to know more about something they know nothing & ask the obvious!

Everything is now growing and we have 4 days of frosts forecast, so the garden is now mostly covered with fleece

Same here, tigerburnie! I have just covered all the growing potatoes with thick bubble plastic and will put a fleece over the top because the forecast is for quick lively northerly winds and the bubble plastic might take off! The 'touchy' plants in the greenhouse are clustered round the heater.

I whipped down to shut the back tunnel door & lucky I did as last night's minimum in there was just 3.8, so the plants were probably not too comfortable & another shock like this current cold spell would not be welcome! Everything is now tucked up - whether they need it or not, except the spuds so I expect I will get some leaves frost burned on them but they have been earthed up 3 times so will survive. (Fingers crossed)!

Our lowest forecast is for 3 degrees so in theory should not cause a problem ,but when have the weather people ever got it right

Earthed up the potatoes that had come through and had to cover about 200 pots of various things that were on the terrace....It certainly wasn't far off a frost.

I built a polythene tent over my potato bed for last night, we got down to zero for about an hour, enough to put a solid layer on the car roof but no ice on the birds' water. With the dodgy forecast for several days I don't really want to dismantle it each day but it's going to get quite hot under there in the sunshine. The polytunnel potatoes are flowering but I don't think I'll investigate them yet.

Trouble is they are a bit past earthing up.

Wow Geoff, they look well, a real credit to you!

Geoff your plot/garden looks great & very productive! Lovely dark soil - I do get soil envy, mine is good after a decade of work but because it is sandy it mostly looks quite light on some beds. When I was in Aussie I envied red soil (I lived in Redcliffe so there's a hint), but it wasn't my area that was productive but going into the city, the train went through the potato fields which looked really nice with the green foliage & bright red/orange soil in between the rows.

Looking rather fabulous Geoff

Took advantage of the drying winds and managed to get my allotments virtually weed free, today....