The Polytunnel Handbook

The Polytunnel Handbook looks at all aspects of polytunnel use from planning your purchase to harvesting the rewards, and includes a step-by-step guide detailing how polytunnels are put up and maintained.

• Chapters on developing healthy soil and preventing pests
• A jargon-free guide to the range of often mystifying accessories that many tunnel retailers offer.
• For the DIY enthusiast there is a full set of instructions for building a polytunnel from scratch
• The authors explain how to keep your polytunnel productive in every season.

The Authors:

Andy McKee first grew vegetables with his father at the age of five, and since then he has grown in situations ranging from a seventeenth-storey window box to guerrilla gardening in the middle of a Christmas tree plantation. He had his eyes opened to the potential of polytunnels during a visit to one featuring a hot tub warmed by a clay oven. He lives with his wife and family in rural Dorset, and is entirely self-sufficient in vegetables.

Mark Gatter began growing vegetables while homesteading in north California in the early eighties and has been a keen gardener ever since. He’s a firm advocate of an organic, raised-bed approach and relies on a polytunnel to keep fresh food on the table right through the winter. He and his wife share their smallholding in Wales with 11 sheep, several chickens and two dogs.

“As someone considering buying a polytunnel, I am so pleased that I read this book first. The Polytunnel Handbook has guided me to the type of tunnel I need, made me think about the use and given me confidence to get started.”  Liz Wright, Editor, Smallholder magazine