Grow Your Own Magazine

I am a fairly new allotment holder who has now inherited a large garden as well. for my birthday I am lucky enough to be offered the choice of either a greenhouse/polytunnel/solar tunnel and am confused as to the best choice. I am looking probably at around 10 - 15 feet long and would be grateful if anyone out there could give me some advantages and disadvantages of these so that I can make a good choice. Many thanks. Penny

Hello and welcome to the Vine PennyR.

Congratulations on your lottie and garden. I can't help with your query but I am sure there will be plenty grapes along later who can. Lucky you getting a tunnel of whichever sort you end up with too! Can't wait to hear what you get and what you are going to grow in it.

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Happy Gardening,
Shirley

http://www.honeyjukes.co.uk

Hi Penny,

That's a hard one - as they aren't really the same sort of beast.

The advantages of the Greenhouse are

They are permenant
Easier to heat & Insulate
Better light transmission

the down side is the cost for the size and if you grow in the borders you have to dig the soil out every 3 or 4 years

Polytunnels

They can be moved around (only a probolem if you grow in the border soil)
Not so easy to insulate & harder to heat
Plastic doesn't transmit lights as well ( only a problem if you want to grow in the begining or end of the season
For the same money you'll get a considerable bigger polytunnel
The covers will need replacing every 6 years or so.

Ideally you need both -but I guess thats not an option If you are going to put it on your lottie, I would go for the Polytunnel & then have a look in hte free papers, freebay or freecycle for a 2nd hand greenhouse & have that at home then you can heat that & use that to raise all your plants & use the polytunnel on the allotment to grow things earlier & as a huge coldframe.

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ntg

Never be afraid to try something new.
Remember that a lone amateur built the Ark.
A large group of professionals built the Titanic

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Hi PennyR and welcome!

I agree with what Nick has said (about needing both ) but i guess it depends on what you want to grow initially.

I would desperately love a polytunnel for our allotment, but unfortunately i can't afford one. I have a small greenhouse in our garden (6x6) which i bought last year instead and currently is much more useful - i can over-winter my tender garden plants, and start off my vegetables for planting out. Its easy-ish to heat with a paraffin heater and i insulated it with bubble wrap.

If you want to grow tons of tomatoes (i.e. more than a handful of plants) then maybe a polytunnel would be better, i manage with 3 tomoto plants in the greenhouse ad i'm growing some outdoor varieties for the plot instead. It doe sget pretty full come mid-summer though!

Good luck with whatever you choose!

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Happy Gardening!

Hi Shirl,

Thanks for the welcome. It seems that I'm going to need to use the old grey matter on this one - I thought it would be easy to choose - but it seems that it's going to be a bit more difficult (my old man is buying me the new toy for my birthday and he asked me to choose what I would like) it seems I need both!! (no chance).

How long have you had your lottie? We only started last year and now have 2 and this huge garden so we certainly have our work cut out for us this year.

Hi Nick,

Many thanks for your advice - this seems tobe a bit trickier than I first thought - I'm being given this as a birthday pressie so I will have to think it through.

Thanks for your message.

It seems that the greenhouse will be a good idea for us. I didn't realise that you needed to heat them though. I am an avid herb grower and like to start things off early to so I mioght opt for the greenhouse option as it seems to have worked well for you. I'll keep you posted on how things progress. This is a birthday pressie for me from my old man so I'm dithering a bit on what to choose.

Hi PennyR and welcome!
I would agree with Nick, greenhouse and polytunnel are two different things and possibly also depends on where you live as to which would work best for you in the first instance. I can grow very little outside so a polytunnel is worth its weight in gold, but having said that it has been difficult starting seeds off early enough. So last year I got a greenhouse and am finding I'm a couple of months ahead of my sowing than in previous years (if they survive!).
Not an easy decision for you!!

No lottie here. None available where I live. I have a fair sized garden and OH is being very good and letting me dig up some lawn to grow veggies instead. My first year of growing was last year and now that I have that experience under my belt I hope for more success this year. OH (madmax on here) bought me a 6 x 8 greenhouse for crimbo and birthday and we hope to build it over easter when he will be home for a few days.

If I may suggest, don't try to achieve everything this year, take it gently or you will end up fed up with it all. More fun to make lots of little conquests and enjoy it.

__________________
Happy Gardening,
Shirley

http://www.honeyjukes.co.uk

I have both tunnels and greenhouses on my plots.

My preference would be to have a huge greenhouse but costs preclude that. If I had a choice it would have to be the tunnel as for the same money you get a much bigger structure. The moving about bit I am not convinced about unless you did it when the cover was changed, but even then its an awful lot of work. If you keep adding compost and manure your fertility shouldnt become an issue in the borders of either.

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Kindest regards, David.

http://pigletsplots.blogspot.com/
updated - Sunday 19th at 2100hrs

My only experience is of greenhouses but to help in your consideration (greenhouse wise) I'd say think of a size and double it !

Seriously, I have written elsewhere about the dangers of going "cheap" (wind damage) , you get what you pay for. Don't scrimp on the additional vent, louvres or quality of the g/h and build a good solid base.

Have fun !

i would go for the poly tunnel as they dont come up second hand very often , and wait for a second had green house that people tend to throw away quite often.
best of luck and have a good season .

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ILFRACOMBE
NORTH DEVON

a seed planted today makes a meal tomorrow!

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now in blog form ! UPDATED 01 / 04 / 08

How about the best of both worlds? I'm one of the lucky gardeners. On the lotty plots I garden, I have a 12' x 25' polytunnel, but I also have a 6' x 8' greenhouse with what I call a 6' x 8' poly shed on the back. It's basically a shed frame, same size as the greenhouse, but covered with polytunnel grade polythene.( There's no back in the greenhouse, so I can walk straight through). Both have a gravel floor and the shed has the usual staging. As it's wood framed, it can be double insulated in the winter, so it stays as warm as the greenhouse.
Just another idea to get you even more confused. Which ever you choose, grow what you want and have fun with it and remember, you have another birthday next year !!!
By the way, the greenhouse/shed and the polytunnel are concreted in and have survived all the storm force winds we've had up here in the frozen north for the past 7 years.

Hi all, just about to embark on my first growing season at the allotment. Spent the past 8 months clearing a 30m x 10m plot that was overrun with metre high grass/nettles/docs etc and have built my own polytunnel from wood, spare gas pipe and scaffolding poles. It's 6m x 3m x 2.5 m high and will certainly do what I need it to do, having only had an 8x6 greenhouse before. My advice is don't be frightened to have a go at making your own from 'raw' materials. I thought it was way beyond me at first but once I got started I could only be dragged away when it got too dark! It's worked out about half the price of a commercially produced one.

Nice one Steve, I'm just about to start on polytunnel 2 for SHMBO. It'll be about the same size as yours and by the sound of things, from the same bits.
She wanted to take over mine, but she has more chance of becoming Pope

Hi Penny R - wecome to the vine. You certainly don't need to heat a greenhouse. Many of us here have unheated houses. They give sufficient protection to let you get earlier crops but you need to be aware that you will need to bring tender plants in to your house at night if there is a frost. Invest in a max-min thermometer and listen to the weather reports!

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Updated November 30th - Mr Stinky's Excellent Adventure (and a Christmas Cake)

Good on you Steve. Might give that a go myself. Keep looking at the prices of commercial tunnels but your idea sounds great.