A polytunnel, high tunnel or hoop house, can be used as an affordable, low-carbon aid to growing your own food all year round, from crispy salads and fresh vegetables in the dead of winter to juicy melons and mouth-watering grapes in high summer. But once you've decided to invest in a polytunnel, there are many questions to be answered, including:
- Do you need planning permission?
- What are the different sizes and types you can buy?
- Where should you put it, and how do you put it up?
- What can you use it for, how do you look after it, and what are the likely problems?
The Polytunnel Handbook looks at all aspects of using a polytunnel, from planning your purchase to harvesting the rewards, and includes a step-by-step guide detailing how polytunnels are put up and maintained. There are chapters on developing healthy soil and preventing pests, and a jargon-free guide to the range of often mystifying accessories that many tunnel retailers offer. For the DIY enthusiast there is a full set of instructions for building a polytunnel from scratch, and the authors explain how to keep your polytunnel productive in every season.
About the Author: Andy McKee grew up in Belfast, and first grew vegetables with his father at the age of five. After an early career in pharmacy, he pursued his interest in gardening and vegetable growing, and has grown in situations ranging from a seventeenth storey window box to guerrilla gardening in the middle of a Christmas tree plantation. Andy has lived in Birmingham, Belfast and the Isle of Man, and now lives with his wife and family in rural Dorset. The family is entirely self-sufficient in vegetables. Andy has also helped to set up the Transition Town initiative for Dorchester, which is scheduled to 'go live' in Spring 2009. Andy has contributed regularly to the blog section of the Ecologist Online, and his personal blog can be found at www.hedgewizardsdiary.blogspot.com.
Mark and Andy have written two boths together for Green Books: The Polytunnel Handbook and How To Grow Food in Your Polytunnel.
Mark Gatter grew up in suburban London, but always wanted to live somewhere rural. He eventually got his wish when he swapped houses with a friedn from the Lake District, both agreeing to deal with the landlords later. After living there for five yers, and co-running a printing partnership, Mark went on a two week holiday to California, and ending upliving there for eighteen years after meeting his wife. Whilst in California, his love of gardening grew, with a special focus on growing food. Mark currently lives in Carmarthenshire with his wife, and spends a full week in every month in his two-acre smallholding with his rescue sheep, chickens and dogs, a 10 x 20ft polytunnel and an area of raised beds. They grow as much organic food as they possibly can, and enjoy giving it away at least as much as eating it themselves.
