The latest project here at Achies is building a polycrub. Being in the north of Scotland having undercover growing space is essential to extend the growing season. Our poly tunnels are great is the shelter of the vegetable garden but this new one is going in a more exposed location to make the most of the available sun later in the year. The polycrubs were designed in the Shetland Islands to deal with the conditions there and with the twin wall polycarbonate cover should hold in the heat for longer.
The first step was to mark out the rough area with pegs and string followed by removing the turf where the ground works need to go.
The the hard work began digging out 20 post holes. This would have been a whole lot easier if our ground wasn’t more stone that soil. There was much used of the pri bar and even had to dig out the jackhammer for some of the holes.
Then excitement the delivery day arrived.
The next part was concreting in the four corner posts. This proved to be more challenging than expected. What really didn’t help was the wind. Trying to accurately measure over a ten metre distance with the tape flapping in rather wind. It involved a whole lot of measuring, remeasuring, some high school maths calculations, working out how many digits means centimetres and which is millimetres. Moving the post a bit and repeating the process all over again.
Today was fitting the rest of the posts. Eleven went in pretty easily with the aid of markings on the string and a special post spirit level. That just left 5 that required a bit of extra digging and the use of the pri bar to expand the holes a little. It is now the end of the day and 19 out of 20 posts are in. The last one is waiting until tomorrow when george is home from work to bring out the jack hammer again and I have recovered from the blood loss as a result to the pesky midges today.
Look out for phase two – putting up the hoops.
Achies Farm 