Winter is a time for maintenance and planning

As the growing season winds down and the remaining hot weather crops are stripped out, the Polytunnel will suddenly look more spacious and calm and this is the golden opportunity for a general tidy-up.  Repair any accidental damage or tears in the polythene cover. Secure doors! Unless you have sliding doors, put a weight against the outside of hinged doors to prevent them catching in gusty winds. Clean the Polythene cover allowing as much light transmission as possible through the darker months and….. start planning for the new growing season ahead, grab your seed catalogues and enjoy a few minutes thinking about what you’d like to grow in 2012. 

Fleece Protection inside a Polytunnel

Frost Protection - The Polytunnel Gardener  should protect all tender crops from extreme temperatures, whilst still making sure they get as much light as possible. Cloche hoops covered with Fleece and Mini Polythene Polytunnels act like double glazing and are just as useful inside a Polytunnel throughout winter in much the same way as they are in the outside garden in early Spring. Whatever the surrounding temperature, frost sensitive plants will be several degrees warmer with extra protection..

Heaters for Polytunnels

Heating – Check your heaters before you need them. If you rely on any heating in the Polytunnel over the winter, make sure that it is over hauled and in good working order. It’s also a good idea to check your gas bottles are full in readiness for the cooler nights ahead too!

Winter on the Allotment

 Watering - Although very little water is needed during the winter, be careful to get as little water as possible on the foliage, where it could cause damage if it freezes. Watering is best done as soon as the temperature in the Polytunnel rises above freezing, to give any accidental splashes as long as possible to dry. In extended periods of freezing weather, no watering is required at all. *TIP TOP * Make sure to drain all automatic irrigation systems to prevent frost damage.

Tidy up the Polytunnel

Clear up Debris – Try to pick up plant debris as soon as you see it. Mould can be a real problem at this time of year because of the damp weather.  Also woodlice, slugs and other pests will be happy sheltering under leaves, in small piles of rotting plant matter or snuggled away in little nooks and crannies to hibernate, storing up an enormous appetite for the spring time and your spring veg… get rid of them as far away as you can

Time to Sow – Broad Beans, Winter Lettuce, Early Carrots, Mangtout Peas, Rocket and Mustard Greens.

Mark Gatter

For more of  ©Mark Gatter  monthly growing tips and advice please visit First Tunnels Growing Guide

Polythene Repair Tape

Don’t worry, First Tunnels have a solution. Polythene repair tape is a flexible long lasting translucent tape designed to effectively repair accidental damage or tears in Polythene covers on Polytunnels. Repair tape is available in three widths to suit most applications and is hardly noticeable when applied. Not only is it excellent for repairing Polythene covers or cloches, it is the ideal solution for repairing cracked panes in greenhouses. Never the less, it’s aways handy to have a roll of repair tape on standby for those unforeseen emergencies.

Watch the video

With a First Tunnels Polytunnel, your harvest steps up a gear as the rest of the garden winds down for autumn & winter.

Polytunnel Gardening

August – High summer in the garden and time to sit back relax and admire the fruits of your labours. With flower borders billowing and kitchen gardens at their productive best, a years worth of sowing and hoeing all becomes worthwhile. The trouble is green-fingered types aren’t ones to sit in the garden for long. Gardeners are already thumbing through next season’s seed catalogues and planning their plots for 2012 and beyond. We know that autumn is just around the corner and the season will soon be coming to an end.  It’s hard to imagine that the first frosts could be upon us in weeks!

Polytunnel Harvest

For millions of gardeners, harvest soon heralds the end of the gardening year. But there is an exception to the rule: A Polytunnel extends the growing season right into winter. Even in October, productive Polytunnel gardeners will be harvesting carrots, cauliflower,chard, radishes, spinach, spring onion, strawberries and tomatoes – to name a few. The extended harvest doesn’t stop when the clocks go back, many of these popular fruit and veg will still yield crops in November undercover. And instead of watching fireworks, Polytunnel gardeners are busy sowing new crops – broad beans, cabbage, coriander and garlic, for example. Not bad, when you consider that our climate is far from Mediterranean.

Polytunnel Construction

The key to growing your own right into winter is to get a Polytunnel up and running now – while the summer holidays are still upon us.  First Tunnels, the UK’s leading supplier of their vast construction knowledge and expertise with the online garden Polytunnel community. Visit www.polytunnels.co.uk to watch an extensive range Polytunnel construction videos including hoops assembly, fixing door frames, how to repair a Polytunnels Polythene cover and even how to clean a Polytunnels polythene cover. You can download FREE comprehensive construction guides for Polytunnels and Fruit Cages and easy to follow instructions for installing First Tunnels irrigation systems.

Weekend help – Now here’s the best bit : because most Polytunnels are built at the weekend, First Tunnels have set up a construction helpline that operates out of office hours. This allows customers to talk directly to an expert constructor between 9am-5pm at the weekend (call 07801 601253) ensuring that your Polytunnel is completed.

As well as www.Polytunnels.co.uk, there’s a wealth of tips on First Tunnels website www.FirstTunnels.co.uk. You can meet other Polytunnel growers on www.facebook.com/Polytunnels or call 01282 601253 to speak to one of First Tunnels expert staff before making a purchase that’ll stretch autumn harvest right through until Christmas!

Order your FREE First Tunnels brochure and DVD today!

First Tunnels perfect Polytunnels just got even better!

Order a Polytunnel during July and you’ll receive a FREE trestle table  – perfect to increasing the growing space inside your polytunnel.

 Plus 4 great Polytunnel books from Mark Gatter, Andy McKee, Bernard Salt and Jayne Neville. Sounds good…there’s more…

To make sure you’re tunnel stays in tip top condition we’ll also give you 5 litres of Algon cleaning fluid and some polythene repair tape,  just in case! That’s over £100 worth of useful extras FREE!

Order online or over the telephone on 01282 601253 today.

(Offer ends 31st July 2011)

First Tunnels Polytunnel gift voucher

It can be hard finding the right gift for Father’s Day. With First Tunnels Polytunnel vouchers, Dad can choose his own!

Last minute gift idea? No problem – First Tunnels can email a PDF voucher to you (please indicate at checkout the address to send the voucher(s). We will endeavour to email you the voucher next working day.

First Tunnels Polytunnel Gift Vouchers are just the thing  to say “thank you”. £10, £50 and £100 available.

Order online or over the telephone on 01282 601253