Last year I got a polytunnel and grew tomatoes, peppers and cucumbers in it, I've taken everything I learned from last year and applied it to this year or that is what I think.

Last year I've build a table out of pallets and placed my water butt on it, this works great as I have a simple garden timer that runs on batteries that open the water twice every 6 hours and water everything with a simple drip irrigation system.

One of the most annoying things in this system was the water level in the water butt, because there is no gauge on the water butt you don't know how much water is in it. I've used my phone to take pictures or video's of the inside of the water butt, but there is always the risk of dropping my phone in the water butt. The other option is to find a kinda clean stick to stick in the water butt and see where the wet spot is.

This year i've drilled a small hole in the bottom and top of the water butt and glued a clear cheap fish tank pipe into the water butt, this way I can see what the exact water level is.

My neighbour gave me some pallets and with the leftover decking, I've installed a floor in the tunnel.

Last year I've used tomato grow bags to grow the plants in, this year I am using B&Q car boot liners. The liners are cheap and are a nice deep square shape. This way the plants can develop strong root systems and have plenty space to grow, I am going to stick to four plants per liner. Took 8 bags of multipurpose compost bags from the allotment shop to fill all these liners.

Last year I've used a perforated pipe for a dripping system, it works well and is about £7 from HomeBase. This year I am using individual drippers, this way I can place the dripper at the base of each plant and have a much more targeted watering system.

As always my little helper was more than happy to spend a raining Sunday afternoon in the tunnel planting plants.

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Two crafted cucumber plants that I bought and two aubergine plants that was also bought

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4 x black cherry tomato plants grown from seed

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Crafted cucumber plant that I bought and 3 x black krim tomato plants grown from seed

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3 x pomodoro tomato roma grown from seed and one crafted tomato plant that I bought.

In the big pot to the right is a beef tomato grown from seed and is in compost from Light and Grow in Eltham, the guy in the shop is very helpful. 

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in the liner is 3 x beef tomatoes grown from seed and a artisan green tiger tomato that I bought.

In the pot on the left is a beef tomato that was also grown from seed and was transplanted to a pot with the Light and Grow compost. I think here you can all ready see the difference in the plants.

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4 x black krim tomatoes grown from seed

Fingers crossed we get some decent tomatoes...see you at the allotment show ;)

• allotment
• apple
• apples
• Aromatic Russet
• Asparagus
• aubergine
• bean
• carrots
• chitting
• Chivers' Delight
• cloche
• cooking
• cucumber
• Elstar
• fruit
• fruit trees
• garlic
• grape vine
• greenhouse
• indoor
• jelly
• Laxton's Epicure
• marigold
• Oblique cordon
• onions
• pear
• peppers
• Pitmaston Pine Apple
• planting
• planting indoors
• poly tunnel
• Polytunnel
• potato
• potatoes
• power drill
• progress
• quince
• raised bed
• raised bed cloche update
• Rajka
• rhubarb
• Show
• soft fruit
• strawberries
• support
• tomatoes