Friday 29th March 2013 (Good Friday)

Volunteers - Katie, Liz, Austin & Angharad

The poly tunnel had arrived at the Fareshare depo, so we used the van to transport all the bits down to the site. The tunnel is a beastly 30ft long x 14ft wide x 7ft tall and consists of many confusing parts. We had been told that if you can put together a peice of Ikea furniture then you can put this together too......

Poly Tunnel being unloaded from the van.........

.........Even that was enough to warrant a sit down and a cuppa!

Our first method of construction was to follow the instructions to the letter. It recommended measuring out the positions of the foundation tubes using Pythagorus' theorem!!

 It wasn't long before we got frustrated with the fact that each time we checked our measurements they seemed to have changed by as much as 5 inches! 

After 3 hours of agonizing measuring, digging and leveling we arrived at the decision that we would just lay out all the pieces, put the frame together and use the extremely precise method of just plonking it in the holes and adjusting the foundation tubes to fit. 

The moment of truth as the frame went up..........

By Jove! We did it! 

We had taken the advice of another plot holder and gone to Homebase to get some ready mix concrete to hold the foundation tubes in position. This will ensure that the structure wont blow away in any strong winds. 

The frame was up just in time to watch the sunset over the plot. Although it was still a chilly 4 degrees, today you could smell spring in the air!

This was todays plan.....and we achieved it! 

Saturday 30th March 2013

Volunteers - Katie & John

Today was a beautiful sunny day, I almost felt warm at one point! John and I made some path edges for the main path - which we plan to do to all our paths in time. This is to stop the woodchippings on the path blending into the main growing space. 

To make a path edge we got a length of wood and nailed to steak pieces to each end to anchor the plank into the ground

John sawing the steaks at a right angle so the wood can be easily malleted into the ground.