My Greenhouse Tunnels

[sammyqc]

Hope the link works. It's been a while since I tried to post pictures.
This is what I did on Saturday. It was actually fun to be outside, building something!

[Alan]

Excellent Sammy, You should check out what grungy and Val have done with their low tunnel desighn, it's really cool. I also have a friend who started designing little miniature greenhouses I need to get some pics up of to show everyone!

Best of luck friend!

[sammyqc]

Thanks! I've seen Grunt and Grungy's pics, their tunnels are great!

I wanted to use up what I had lying around, and didn't want to spend too much on them this year. I also don't want to put anything electric in there, so they have to keep themselves fairly warm as is. So far so good. The temperatures at night are fairly warm, compared to the outside night temperature. During the day, we've been having such warm sunny weather, it gets up to 50 C, which is way too hot for anything to grow, but I haven't planted anything yet. I may just use one as a holding place for potted seedlings and such, overnight when it gets cold.

Would love to see more pictures of what others are doing!

[grunt]

Sammy: Looking good. If you have any containers (milk jugs, large pop bottles, plastic detergent containers, what ever) fill them with water and put them in what ever spare space you have in the tunnels, and they will moderate any cold temperatures somewhat. If you know it is going to get below freezing, put something as a cover over as much as you can, and leave an air space between it and the tunnel surface if you can. Even a plastic tarp, which has almost no insulation value at all, will make a large difference, if there is an air pocket between the tarp and the tunnel. If you can, round off the corners, at least on the outside ends of the frame works, and run a line along the shoulder to support the plastic. Easiest way might be to slip a pop bottle over the end of anything that comes in contact with the plastic. That stuff wears and tears very easily, especially once it starts to get warm and stretches.
I'd even stick my plants in them during the day, and leave the sides open enough to vent them enough to keep the temps down to around30C, and give them a taste of "summer" weather. You'd be surprised what a boost that gives them.
You're off to a good start there.
Cheers
Dan

[sammyqc]

Thanks Dan, for some good pointers. You can't really see it in the pics but I do have garden wire running across the wood on the very top. But bottle ends to soften the pointy edges is a good idea. I've been collecting big 2 + liter bottles as suggested, so I hope it does the trick to keep it warmer. Got lots of wool blankets for garden use too. They keep sheep warm, so why not plants.