GARDEN GLIMPSES 41

How are things going in the poly tunnel, you might wonder? Well...the above photo shows you the left hand side taken July 2 2016. A little corinader/garlic, massive pots of tomatoes, one potted potato bucket, more tomatoes, and the table at the end where I do my potting up...

2 giant onion stems remain potted as an experiment. 3-4 cabbages remain unpotted/planted. A half dozen turnips at the back grow away happily. A few straggly late-coming leeks are given a chance to make it before its too late to plant them out. The rhubarb I grew from the base of a stem (then transfered to the allotment today) and some purple basil come next. One onion grows strongly in a pot at last - it did not like the patio greenhouse so I moved it back here and put two tomato plants in there. I only had the single onion grow from seed, so I am glad I bought onion sets too this year.

Coming down the right side, this is where my tiny tubbed seedilings grew - most are planted out or potted on now. A few basil and tomatoes and things that might be leeks or might be grass and a patch of interesting yellow flowers where the seed pods POP in explosion when ripe and touched remain...

Underneath, you can see I have a little compost, watering cans, and to the right my tool area. The old plastic shed that my son, cousins, and neighbors helped erect is alas not functional any longer - just a few years after it was bought and built. It leaked to begin with - and a panel fell out not long after. As the year turned into 2 years, other bits broke or fell off - til the gales blew the whole thing off base. I put it back on base, but emptied it of valueables - all the good tools are now in the poly tunnel.

My plans for the poly tunnel are to split the poly centrally and peel it back to double-cover each of the two ends - with the mesh window and door in - and then recover the whole thing with fresh poly. The result will hopefully be a usable poly tunnel in the majority/middle area, with a potting bench and tool shed area at either end with reinforced coverage, if darker.