Due to a few reasons we will not be going on our usual end of season trip this year so we decided to treat ourselves to a Polycrub. These are a very strong version of a poly tunnel, designed in Shetland using pipes recycled from fish farms. An incredible design and extremely strong. They have been on the go for a few years and there are several in Shetland, the Western isles and even the Faroes so we were more than happy they had been tested for their strength in the adverse weather conditions we get here especially the winds. We chose a suitable size to fit the space we had available (an area we have had cleared since we started building our house 10 years ago) and ordered it.
That was all we were going to do until the tourist season started to ease, but we did the usual thing of ‘panic’ with the onset of winter. We were right too. It is such a shame, but there has been no autumn, just bang, summer to winter. No autumn colours in the leaves, no beautiful sunrises and sunsets, no late winter sun and all the other things that happen as the days shorten. Once we had begun to build there was the push to get it done, sealed and safe. Then once that was achieved it was decided that there was no point leaving it at that stage and the beds were built, filled and thanks to a friend even partially planted with some winter greens. We even pushed on further and laid some pavings and bark to finish off the area at the door and the paths.
At this point I would like to apologise to anybody who came along and found us closed. We did close for a couple of days while moving soil as it was a bit of a mucky job. It was a great project to do, tricky at times and now its completed we love it.
Here are a few photos.
So it is here, doesn’t look much
First job is to get the foundation posts in. These have to obviously be positioned right and then concreted into place. A fencing contractor friend was a great help for this part of the job. Thats it now till the concrete drys.
The fish farm feed pipes are then bent over and slotted over the posts. (With the help of a little wren)
Purlins are now fixed to the posts. Wood has been slotted and fixed inside the pipes in the correct place to fix the purlins to – clever. The purlins are what the sheets fix too, but for now George is making use of them.
Stage three is to add the shiplap boards (three rows) on the bottom of the hoops. All ready now to start sheeting. This was a very interesting stage, tricky, you need a knack and about 4 million pairs of hands 🤣🤣🤣.
Gable ends. We concreted full hight posts for the door frame and the same at the other end which would serve for the window. All adding to the strength. Cutting lengths of timber to frame it out and sheets to clad it. Shiplap boards run along the bottom the same as they did along the sides.
We have chosen to put in raised beds, ease of working and also as we have very little topsoil on our rocky land so quite necessary to be able to grow things. The beds are to be built out of 8″x2″ boards, 3 high and braced. Round the outside the beds are 600mm wide and the centre bed 1200mm wide. One of the side beds and the centre bed are not as long giving us an area for the potting bench and a couple of seats for those G&T times.👏👏🍸
Two six ton trailers later (over two days) the beds are full and Michael takes a well earned rest.
The top area is cleared and sand put down to lay the blocks, fairly level ¡¡¡¡¡¡¡. Bark is put down the paths between the beds and we are done. Oh I did add bunting and solar powered fairy lights – who wouldn’t.
We love our Crubby and are sure we will be spending many an enjoyable hour in there.