Polytunnel Part 1- Early Christmas Present

Good evening and welcome.  This post kicks off a mini series following my efforts in constructing my first ever full sized polytunnel.  I've yearned after one ever since we started on our allotment adventure, possibly even before to when we started growing things at home.  

Earlier this year, we acquired the plot next to ours which opened up the opportunity and space to seriously consider a tunnel.  Why a tunnel?  In terms of 'bang for your buck', I believe a polytunnel is probably the most affordable way of getting quality undercover growing space.  A greenhouse of the same size would be unfeasibly more expensive so a tunnel just makes sense, that is of course assuming everything is bought new.  

As far as I could tell, I had several options.  The typical 'first' polytunnel usually sourced from Amazon or such sites.  Cheap as chips.  Will last for a couple of years if the weather doesn't decide otherwise.  Erected in a matter of hours. Instant gratification.  But without substantial modifications and improvement, doomed to fail during it's first bad winter.  Not to mention the poor quality of the covers which seemingly start to deteriorate after only a year, producing a load of microplastic as it crumbles.

I was looking for something with a bit more longevity.  Next option, a DIY build.  I'm more than capable of building my own structure, and for a time I did spend a while seeing if I could source sufficient structural materials to build one.  Everything from trampolines and pallets to old commercial hoops from local soft fruit growers were being looked at.  Ultimately though, it could have taken a couple of years before I eventually sourced all the right materials of the correct size before I could have done the build.

I did briefly consider the second hand market for a more traditional kit, but inevitably, that would have meant spending money on a new cover, new timberwork and other sundries to complete the build.  Plus the initial cost of it, and the travelling to the sellers location to either pick up, or dismantle and pick up.  To me, if I was going to put that effort into getting a polytunnel, for not a lot more money, I could get a new tunnel with good support and instruction on putting it all together.

Finally, I settled on the decision to buy new from one of two suppliers.  Both offer very similar products with very little in price difference by the time you take into account all the bits and bobs.  The two suppliers I considered were First Tunnels and Premier Polytunnels.  What clinched it though was the quality of the reported aftersales service and more importantly, some fantastic instructions on how to build their tunnels in video format on YouTube.  Not to mention having someone on the end of a phone, 7 days a week who you can call to talk through any issues you come across during construction.  For those reasons, I chose to go with First Tunnels, and so far, I'm impressed.  To be honest though, there is very little in it, and it is a decision that so far, could quite happily been made by the toss of a coin.

So, where am I now?  Well, the order's been placed for a 6 foot by 12 foot tunnel with timber base rail and soil anchor options and I took delivery of all 10 parts of the consignment last week.  Construction has started, and I'll be documenting the process in the follow posts in this series.

That's it for now, and for this post.  I've got so much to post about in the coming days and weeks on top of the build process for the tunnel.  With 2025 a matter of only weeks away, life on the plot doesn't hold up!  Until the next time, thanks for reading :-)