COLUMNIST: Kelly Ireland
I like growing warm climate crops, although despite my best efforts I have not managed to get a good crop of tomatoes grown outside. I really love tomatoes – like really love them. I think the appeal is the wide range of varieties that are available from tiny currants to giant beef steaks, from red to green to purple to orange to stripey.
It was because of tomatoes that I persuaded my partner to spend some of our savings on a polytunnel. We went for the biggest we could afford: 66 x 14 feet. It arrived on pallets and looked impossible to me. After a lot of reading, YouTube watching, and a little bit of arguing, we managed to get the frame up. It was from this point that it all went a bit wrong.
There was a storm coming, and I wanted the plastic put on the polytunnel so I could store our winter hay. My partner (the engineer) was away so I decided in my wisdom that I would put the plastic on with the help of our children. Looking back, I don’t know what I was thinking as it really needed at least four strong adults, ideally six.
Anyway, we dug trenches and we did our best. It looked… wrinkly, and my poor partner winced when he saw our efforts. Still, a storm was coming and the hay was kept dry.
A win. Or so I thought.
Then came the next big storm and I watched, helpless, as the metal at one end buckled and split a huge hole in the plastic. Was it my poor attempt at covering the tunnel? Or was it just really bad luck that the storm hit at the right angle? It had survived Storm Arwen at this point so perhaps I was overconfident and the universe felt I needed a reality check. In one storm, I lost half the polytunnel, the metal had buckled beyond repair, and the plastic was torn into two pieces.
I now had a 33ft x 14ft polytunnel. Whilst I was a little bit sad about it (huge understatement, I cried for a whole day), I knew I still had a really big space to play in. We secured the plastic, this time with the input of the engineer who added plenty of extra bracing to make sure it stayed put – and stayed put it has ever since.
I did a deep dive into what would be possible to grow. I had learnt my lesson about rushing headlong into a project, and wanted to do things properly, with a realistic planting plan, a well organised layout, and nothing left to chance. Safe to say that despite all the planning, things did go a little awry. I grew dwarf beans that reached the top of the polytunnel and back down again, tomatoes did not always get pruned, and I jammed in far too many tomatillo plants to one corner. One year, a stunning peach dahlia grew all by itself in the middle of a cucumber patch, never to be seen again.
I was intrigued about growing perennials in a polytunnel. I bought a hardy kiwi (Actinidia deliciosa ‘Jenny’) and planted it in the midway point on the south side of the polytunnel. It was about a foot tall and not very promising. It is now four years old and spans the width of the polytunnel, scrambling over crop bars and providing much needed summer shade and habitat for spiders. I even had a robin inspect it as a potential nest site last year. I would also add that should another loo paper shortage arise, we will be well set with the soft, downy kiwi leaves. I am yet to get a fruit off it, although it has flowered. I am told that this coming year I should hope for fruit, but I don’t mind, I love it just as it is.
I also have a goji berry shrub (Lycium barbarum) growing well. This one I regret, they are very thorny! The flowers are charming though, and very popular with pollinators. It is also growing like mad and is twisted over a crop bar. This year should, in theory, be the year I get fruits but I am not holding my breath as I’ve been told by other growers that they tend to amount to nothing. I know I should just dig it up and give the space to something productive, but I won’t.
I realise I am not doing a great job of promoting growing perennials but one of my favourite things to grow is soft fruits. I grow strawberries and raspberries in the polytunnel. This means I get an early crop of both, and then I transplant some of them outside where I usually get a second crop. I have also grown early rhubarb the same way. My family loves these fruits so this has become a helpful way to jump start the season.
I also have a small herb bed. I find growing rosemary, oregano, and thyme outside a bit of a gamble as the damp can kill them off. They thrive in the polytunnel, where they rarely get watered. I mulch with straw in the autumn and give them a feed in the spring and that is it. I planted them close to the door, so that they are always in reach. Even if I am going in for something else, I love to brush past and smell their scent.
I think that there is a practical element to growing something you only need to plant once but can harvest again and again. This year, I am experimenting with more perennials. I would like to try adding Babington’s Leek (Allium ampeloprasum var. babingtonii) to the herb bed, as well as perpetual spinach (Beta vulgaris subsp. cicla var. cicla) as an understory to warm crops, and a grape vine (Vitis vinifera) to the far end.
Babington’s Leek is easy to grow and is undemanding. The garlic flavour is stronger than traditional leeks and it can be harvested in spring where you can cut it at soil level so a useful, hungry gap crop which is also a bonus. They are hardy to zone 6 (-23°C). My hope is the protection of the polytunnel will promote early growth and therefore an earlier crop.
Perpetual spinach is to give us something green to eat in the colder months. The past winter has been a cold and snowy one, and I miss harvesting home grown greens. Spinach is something everyone eats so a safe bet to grow, unlike kale, of which a couple of people in the family are still suspicious.
Finally, a grape vine seems like an obvious thing to grow, but for whatever reason I haven’t. I used to live next door to a lady who had a beautiful vine that filled her whole greenhouse. She would invite us to help ourselves to ripe grapes and they were miles better than anything bought from a supermarket. It also only occurred to me recently that you can also eat the leaves! I am dreaming of warm summer days sitting outside eating Dolma.
The Polytunnel in Spring
There is still a high risk of snow and frost in Scotland so seed sowing undercover is well underway and the polytunnel has transformed into a nursery. I bring in a bunch of pallets to keep the seed trays off of the ground, as this stops voles getting into the trays. As an extra measure, I will pop a layer of fleece over everything at night to deter other creatures from helping themselves to my seeds and seedlings, making sure to tuck the ends in.
This month I am sowing:
Vegetablesbeetrootchardcauliflowerpak choispinachkalepeasradishcarrots in cells (I grow the Parisienne variety which is more of a round bulb than a long, straight carrot as these grow better in our heavy clay soil)
Flowerssnapdragons (I start sowing these indoors from January)poppycalendulacornflowerfoxglovenigellalupin
Herbscorianderparsleydillchive
Kelly Ireland is a keen gardener living with her partner on an off-grid smallholding in the North East of Scotland. After ten years, the house is finished and it is now time to concentrate on the garden. Kelly completed her Permaculture Design Certificate in 2022 and is using this to develop the new gardens around their home.
Keep up with her garden on Instagram at @growingseasons_.