Skip to main content

Growing crops in a commercial size polytunnel - and fighting rabbits! (video included)

Growing crops in a commercial size polytunnel


I'm having great fun in my 12.5 mt long polytunnel. Not only I get to see my plants thrive in almost 39C during sunny days, but I fight some cute rabbits every day as they dig under the doors and destroy my cauliflower and boccoli plants!

I'm not a professional gardener or photographer, but I hope you will enjoy my basic photos of plant life in the hottest spot of my garden. You will also see that we captured a baby rabbit who was guilty of untold damage and a then we released it (he was sooo cuddly!) 

But 2 weeks later, we caught him again and this time we released it in a park nearby (full of other rabbits, water etc) so he can eat plenty of produce - just not ours! A video is available on the bottom of this page.

The first night we moved the strawberries outdoors, they were not protected, and the morning after the rabbits had eaten most of the plants - leaves and all! Needless to say, we rushed to build a protected U-shaped cage which now houses about 40 plants. 
Phew!

There are hundreds of wild strawberry plants in our garden anyway and they produce a wonderful array of tiny, and delicious berries.




So...Here is the guilty bunny!
Remember that the video of us cuddling him is below.

P.S. Eventually we bought a cage trap and by the end of August we caught and released SEVEN bunnies! Since then, we saw no more rabbits in the garden, fingers crossed...
 















This is how I grow lettuce and parsley: on the windowsill outside of my kitchen! 


A bean plant

Sweetcorn!

Dandelion! This is an excellent cancer-fighting plant, a liver detox herb and an excellent snack for our guinea pigs. The flowers are delicious in smoothies, too.


Strawberry patch - before completion.






The inside of the polytunnel


Another awww moment - free bunny!

The bunny after the first release in the ditch




Potato plants!

Sunflowers are growing in the conservatory. The rabbits have chewed most of them off when in the polytunnel...

North side…beans and peas




More peas and beans

A lame attempt to save the broccoli from rodents!



Strawberry




Peas



Another view of the strawberry patch






Zucchini


Italian beans

Cauliflower?

Zucchini in flower


Tomato
Stevia in the conservatory!
Too hot in the poly…Stevia is an excellent sweetener




Spinach


Strawberry spinach (not too sweet but interesting, tasty fruits and leaves) - this plant self-seeds fast!

Bunny cuddling video!








Comments

Popular posts from this blog

The pirate drawing!

I love how Marie has coloured my pirate. Such a cute choice of pastel colours. Who on earth said that pirates must wear just black and earth colours! This is great! Brava! I found this on the Colouring Heaven FB page: https://www.facebook.com/ColouringHeaven/photos/ms.c.eJxFjlsOACEIA2~_04WER7n~_xVVT4Ipl0ShlOPilIRExYP06g7ABinQvIwz3EnRocZZSCBbBiLxF6EqXE2KUY0kp~_EW4lv0wrkDugXepZSriAiVKxqNI402eDnTC8HWvWSdR0ybc23lvNZaGEHyX2Osg~-.bps.a.1577375305909106.1073741851.1461766297470008/1580873155559321/?type=3&theater

Back to Basic, my book about self reliance, is now on sale on Amazon

For years friends and acquaintances have asked me questions about self reliance. After much research and pretty much repeating the same things I thought, 'That's it, I'm going to put the information together in a bundle and they can have it as a book.' This is how back to Basic was born. It's designed to help you if you are a beginner and have no clue about self reliance. Looking at the general state of the economy, it's a good idea to organise our lives to live more frugally. Plus, this book will be great for my children, when they grow up and try to remember how to do things. Right? Here are some of the topics: why we are in debt smart shopping budgeting dehydrating gardening sprouting home-made toiletries smart shopping for Christmas clever and cheaper ways to have fun You can buy it in paperback or as a Kindle.  http://www.amazon.co.uk/Back-basics-make-through-times/dp/146641152X Back to Basics Get started with your self rel...

Sewing: Indian dress

Five years ago I designed and made an Indian dress using a white fleece blanket that was on offer in our local supermarket. It was just a fun project but I ended up adding a fringe, beads and the lot, plus some embroidery, and I even lined the entire dress with satin. When it was finished and I tried it on, it was like being enveloped by a warm white cloud. I loved it and I tend to wear it once a year, when it snows. :) Wicked sense of humour, I know. That dress is special to me also because in the month when I worked on it I became pregnant with my now five ear old daughter, Kim. Making the dress was fun and it costed me only £5,00 for fabric and probably £5,00 for beads. There is so much we can do when we have time, passion and a good idea. I'm not saying that you should go around dressed like American Indians though! Franz