This post was written for Fertile Imagination @ http://community.fertilityflower.com where I have monthly column. Feel free
to visit me over there, too!
**This post was written last year, most likely in May sometime. Not sure why it was never published but since I found it, I thought why not!
It is finally greening up here. Not much veggie action is going on yet but lots of flowers. The big garden is all planted, now just to work in my smaller ones. The tomatoes and peppers are still in the poly-tunnel because it just isn’t that warm out. The are loving it in the 80 to 90 degree temps of the tunnel. A polytummel is a great way to get a head start on gardening, especially for those who live in cold climates. Its really easy to make and not all that expensive either. You will need some irrigation pipe or anything else that is flexible, 8 five foot yard type fence posts, and 6 or 12 mil plastic.
We made our's on a whim one afternoon after discovering the great arching properties of the irrigation pipe. Its not the prettiest right now, but function is all that counts at the moment. We reused some of the plastic that was the base for our skating rink. Its really thin and will have to be replaced if we want to grow in the tunnel all year round (which we do). My husband made a quick frame for the door and when I get a chance I will make the door. Right now there is just a piece of heavy duty plastic stapled over the doorway and a board holds it down at night. Even with the holes and thin plastic it stay at about 60 degrees in there. On the days that the sun shines it gets up to 100. I have to open the door and vent it. I found this great book,
How To Grow Food in your Polytunnel all Year Round, which as been a great help in our quest for fresh veggies in the middle of the winter.
We recently decide that we are going to add doors on both ends and a wooden base to the bottom of the irrigation pipe. This will help make in sturdier, allow us to use less plastic, and hold up better to our Minnesota winters.
This is our first farm hatched chick. There is nothing more fun and soothing that watching them go about the farm yard, mama showing her baby all the good things to eat and scolding when baby gets to far away from here. We sould have some baby ducks soon too, lots of baby ducks. The one hen is sitting on about two dozen eggs and the other has at least a dozen.
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| Johnny Jump-ups |
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| Hay Field |
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| Bleeding Hearts |
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