To be honest, I too think my tunnel if fab. When the weather is crap, I can work away inside it. I can grow veg almost all year round. Carrot fly have not yet worked out how to get inside it either!
It is a lot of work though. Putting it up took Stephen and I 120 hours alone on the frame. It is 30ft wide and a little under 100 ft long - it's the largest single piece of polythene that can be manufactured. I can also confirm that is was a particularly stressful day for me when we put the polythene on. For those sufficiently bored, they can read the saga here:
http://thurstongarden.wordpress.com/200 ... -building/
Without the help of friends and neighbours who all got stuck in with gusto, we would never hav managed. Not in a million years. It is this thought that gives me the sleepless nights when it's really windy. On Hogmany, I was up at the tunnel at 9pm, head to toe in waterproofs, torch in hand. It really does amaze me what it can withstand - I was blown off my feet that night!
I have had damage to it mind - the doors have been blown off twice last winter - hence the timber on the inside in the big photo. The first time the doors came off, one went through the polythene. I was not a happy bunny I can tell you!
With regard to the 'floorboards', I covered the whole of the inside with weed membrane, making sure to extend it right under the timber base rails (more on them in a bit) to the outside of the tunnel. This stops the weeds growing up behind the beds and up the polythene. I then made 35 8ft by 4ft beds and hammered the pointed corner posts though slits made in the membrane. Once the beds were firmly down, I cut away the centre of the membrane, 6" away from the inside of the beds and then folded the 6" excess up the inside of the bed sides. As a result, there is nowhere inside the tunnel for the weeds to grow - apart from inside the beds.
This year I have been a bit more organised and all it takes is a couple of hours every Monday morning to pull the weeds and hoe.
This is my second tunnel, and I would thoroughly recommend to anyone looking to buy one, to get timber base rails. They really do make all the difference. If you don't buy them, you dig a trench around the perimeter of the tunnel and bury the polythene in it. With this method, it is not east to get the plolythene nice and tight. Also, over time, the tunnel frame sinks/gets vibrated with the wind down into the soil, thus making the ploythene slack. With timber base rails, these are fixed to the bottom of the metal frame tubes and the polythene is fixed between 2 pieces of wood. If the polythene looses its taughtness (is that a word??), all you do is loosen the clamp and stand on the timber rail. This tightens the polythene and you then tighten up the clamps. Not easy to explain, so if anyone is considering one and wants to see some pics, let me know and I will post some!
