I suppose there comes a time in every polytunnel life...it starts to look
disgusting

I can work out that a squeezy mop will remove the green on the outside, but
what should I use as a chemical?

Something harmless that will still do the job of loosening before using a
hose?

There are Kiwi below, near the sides on the outside and I'm still silly
enough to believe they will fruit one day.

Regards
Pat Gardiner
www.go-self-sufficient.com

The message
from "Pat Gardiner" contains these words:

I suppose there comes a time in every polytunnel life...it starts to look
disgusting

I can work out that a squeezy mop will remove the green on the outside, but
what should I use as a chemical?

Something harmless that will still do the job of loosening before using a
hose?

There are Kiwi below, near the sides on the outside and I'm still silly
enough to believe they will fruit one day.

Regards
Pat Gardiner
www.go-self-sufficient.com

I just use a mild solution of washing-up liquid. It seems enough to
shift the green. I find a soft broom works well but a squeezy mop sounds
good too. There's always a bit right on top which I can't reach, so only
two thirds gets cleaned.

Janet G

The message
from "Pat Gardiner" contains these words:

I suppose there comes a time in every polytunnel life...it starts to look
disgusting

I can work out that a squeezy mop will remove the green on the outside, but
what should I use as a chemical?

Something harmless that will still do the job of loosening before using a
hose?

There are Kiwi below, near the sides on the outside and I'm still silly
enough to believe they will fruit one day.

Hello Pat. The car is still taxed.......

Did the piggy thing get sorted to your satisfaction?

A spot of detergent and some warm water ought to shift the algae from
your polytunnel. Don't use washing powder as it may contain borax, and
could drain down and brutalise what's growing inside.

And, providing you have a male and a female Chinese gooseberry, you
should get fruit. You should get fruit if you plant them outside, too.

--
Tony
tony·anson&zetnet·co·uk

"Jaques d'Alltrades" wrote in message
...
The message
from "Pat Gardiner" contains these words:
snip
Did the piggy thing get sorted to your satisfaction?

A spot of detergent and some warm water ought to shift the algae from
your polytunnel. Don't use washing powder as it may contain borax, and
could drain down and brutalise what's growing inside.

And, providing you have a male and a female Chinese gooseberry, you
should get fruit. You should get fruit if you plant them outside, too.

Hi Tony.

To take the last point first. Yes, both male and female. Two male, eight
female. No fruit.

Funny you should mention pigs....this is all John Seymour's fault

I was very taken with his idea of using pigs to do the spring digging. So I
made 10 small paddocks, with good stock fences, all interconnecting and with
water and nice little pig sties. An electric wire runs along the inside to
stop the piggies digging under.

It was brilliant. As we moved the pig from paddock to paddock through the
year, I would trot along behind planting something....and when the piggies
got beck to the beginning they would have a lovely time clearing any rubbish
and doing some digging.

The stock fencing along the drive looked a bit bare, so I planted Kiwis five
years ago on the side furthest from the pigs actually on the driveway.
Looked nice. The only potential problem was one of my wife's zoo eating
them. The cow was the most likely hooligan, when she was brought up for
milking twice a day to the cow shed opposite. But I shout at the pair of
them - seems to work.

Anyway three years ago we lost our pigs to the swine fever cull and my wife
was so upset that I thought we would never have any more pigs (I should have
known better!)

So I decided to make good use of the paddocks. I could not just put a
polytunnel anywhere because polytunnels and my wife's animal keeping don't
mix. Either the chickens, sheep or cow would get in there.

I decided to turn the smallest paddock into a protected tunnel area. It is
fenced obviously and has water - ideal. So I put up a 30 ft tunnel on all
this nice piggy fertilised soil.

Except that never having had a tunnel before, I failed to allow enough space
around it - just 18 inches....so I put ground cover plastic down to control
the weeds.

So there you are I have a green tunnel, with no space to work and a herd of
unproductive Kiwis.

Something has got to give...and I don't like the look in the eye of my wife
or in that of her row of Tamworths. She already uses the tunnel to store
straw and hay in the winter, I can hardly get in the thing.

So I have to get the tunnel looking good and the Kiwis productive.

There is a good aerial photograph on
http://pages.britishlibrary.net/patg...otowalledg.htm You can see the
tunnel on the left
and the walled garden with its raised beds.

....and in answer to your question about sorting the piggy business out. No,
I'm still campaigning on animal health, you can read about it elsewhere on
the site, but it is off-topic for here.

Regards
Pat Gardiner
www.go-self-sufficient.com



--
Tony
tony·anson&zetnet·co·uk

"Jaques d'Alltrades" wrote in message
...
The message
from "Pat Gardiner" contains these words:
snip
Did the piggy thing get sorted to your satisfaction?

A spot of detergent and some warm water ought to shift the algae from
your polytunnel. Don't use washing powder as it may contain borax, and
could drain down and brutalise what's growing inside.

And, providing you have a male and a female Chinese gooseberry, you
should get fruit. You should get fruit if you plant them outside, too.

Hi Tony.

To take the last point first. Yes, both male and female. Two male, eight
female. No fruit.

Funny you should mention pigs....this is all John Seymour's fault

I was very taken with his idea of using pigs to do the spring digging. So I
made 10 small paddocks, with good stock fences, all interconnecting and with
water and nice little pig sties. An electric wire runs along the inside to
stop the piggies digging under.

It was brilliant. As we moved the pig from paddock to paddock through the
year, I would trot along behind planting something....and when the piggies
got beck to the beginning they would have a lovely time clearing any rubbish
and doing some digging.

The stock fencing along the drive looked a bit bare, so I planted Kiwis five
years ago on the side furthest from the pigs actually on the driveway.
Looked nice. The only potential problem was one of my wife's zoo eating
them. The cow was the most likely hooligan, when she was brought up for
milking twice a day to the cow shed opposite. But I shout at the pair of
them - seems to work.

Anyway three years ago we lost our pigs to the swine fever cull and my wife
was so upset that I thought we would never have any more pigs (I should have
known better!)

So I decided to make good use of the paddocks. I could not just put a
polytunnel anywhere because polytunnels and my wife's animal keeping don't
mix. Either the chickens, sheep or cow would get in there.

I decided to turn the smallest paddock into a protected tunnel area. It is
fenced obviously and has water - ideal. So I put up a 30 ft tunnel on all
this nice piggy fertilised soil.

Except that never having had a tunnel before, I failed to allow enough space
around it - just 18 inches....so I put ground cover plastic down to control
the weeds.

So there you are I have a green tunnel, with no space to work and a herd of
unproductive Kiwis.

Something has got to give...and I don't like the look in the eye of my wife
or in that of her row of Tamworths. She already uses the tunnel to store
straw and hay in the winter, I can hardly get in the thing.

So I have to get the tunnel looking good and the Kiwis productive.

There is a good aerial photograph on
http://pages.britishlibrary.net/patg...otowalledg.htm You can see the
tunnel on the left
and the walled garden with its raised beds.

....and in answer to your question about sorting the piggy business out. No,
I'm still campaigning on animal health, you can read about it elsewhere on
the site, but it is off-topic for here.

Regards
Pat Gardiner
www.go-self-sufficient.com



--
Tony
tony·anson&zetnet·co·uk

"Jaques d'Alltrades" wrote in message
...
The message
from "Pat Gardiner" contains these words:
snip
Did the piggy thing get sorted to your satisfaction?

A spot of detergent and some warm water ought to shift the algae from
your polytunnel. Don't use washing powder as it may contain borax, and
could drain down and brutalise what's growing inside.

And, providing you have a male and a female Chinese gooseberry, you
should get fruit. You should get fruit if you plant them outside, too.

Hi Tony.

To take the last point first. Yes, both male and female. Two male, eight
female. No fruit.

Funny you should mention pigs....this is all John Seymour's fault

I was very taken with his idea of using pigs to do the spring digging. So I
made 10 small paddocks, with good stock fences, all interconnecting and with
water and nice little pig sties. An electric wire runs along the inside to
stop the piggies digging under.

It was brilliant. As we moved the pig from paddock to paddock through the
year, I would trot along behind planting something....and when the piggies
got beck to the beginning they would have a lovely time clearing any rubbish
and doing some digging.

The stock fencing along the drive looked a bit bare, so I planted Kiwis five
years ago on the side furthest from the pigs actually on the driveway.
Looked nice. The only potential problem was one of my wife's zoo eating
them. The cow was the most likely hooligan, when she was brought up for
milking twice a day to the cow shed opposite. But I shout at the pair of
them - seems to work.

Anyway three years ago we lost our pigs to the swine fever cull and my wife
was so upset that I thought we would never have any more pigs (I should have
known better!)

So I decided to make good use of the paddocks. I could not just put a
polytunnel anywhere because polytunnels and my wife's animal keeping don't
mix. Either the chickens, sheep or cow would get in there.

I decided to turn the smallest paddock into a protected tunnel area. It is
fenced obviously and has water - ideal. So I put up a 30 ft tunnel on all
this nice piggy fertilised soil.

Except that never having had a tunnel before, I failed to allow enough space
around it - just 18 inches....so I put ground cover plastic down to control
the weeds.

So there you are I have a green tunnel, with no space to work and a herd of
unproductive Kiwis.

Something has got to give...and I don't like the look in the eye of my wife
or in that of her row of Tamworths. She already uses the tunnel to store
straw and hay in the winter, I can hardly get in the thing.

So I have to get the tunnel looking good and the Kiwis productive.

There is a good aerial photograph on
http://pages.britishlibrary.net/patg...otowalledg.htm You can see the
tunnel on the left
and the walled garden with its raised beds.

....and in answer to your question about sorting the piggy business out. No,
I'm still campaigning on animal health, you can read about it elsewhere on
the site, but it is off-topic for here.

Regards
Pat Gardiner
www.go-self-sufficient.com



--
Tony
tony·anson&zetnet·co·uk

"Jaques d'Alltrades" wrote in message
...
The message
from "Pat Gardiner" contains these words:
snip
Did the piggy thing get sorted to your satisfaction?

A spot of detergent and some warm water ought to shift the algae from
your polytunnel. Don't use washing powder as it may contain borax, and
could drain down and brutalise what's growing inside.

And, providing you have a male and a female Chinese gooseberry, you
should get fruit. You should get fruit if you plant them outside, too.

Hi Tony.

To take the last point first. Yes, both male and female. Two male, eight
female. No fruit.

Funny you should mention pigs....this is all John Seymour's fault

I was very taken with his idea of using pigs to do the spring digging. So I
made 10 small paddocks, with good stock fences, all interconnecting and with
water and nice little pig sties. An electric wire runs along the inside to
stop the piggies digging under.

It was brilliant. As we moved the pig from paddock to paddock through the
year, I would trot along behind planting something....and when the piggies
got beck to the beginning they would have a lovely time clearing any rubbish
and doing some digging.

The stock fencing along the drive looked a bit bare, so I planted Kiwis five
years ago on the side furthest from the pigs actually on the driveway.
Looked nice. The only potential problem was one of my wife's zoo eating
them. The cow was the most likely hooligan, when she was brought up for
milking twice a day to the cow shed opposite. But I shout at the pair of
them - seems to work.

Anyway three years ago we lost our pigs to the swine fever cull and my wife
was so upset that I thought we would never have any more pigs (I should have
known better!)

So I decided to make good use of the paddocks. I could not just put a
polytunnel anywhere because polytunnels and my wife's animal keeping don't
mix. Either the chickens, sheep or cow would get in there.

I decided to turn the smallest paddock into a protected tunnel area. It is
fenced obviously and has water - ideal. So I put up a 30 ft tunnel on all
this nice piggy fertilised soil.

Except that never having had a tunnel before, I failed to allow enough space
around it - just 18 inches....so I put ground cover plastic down to control
the weeds.

So there you are I have a green tunnel, with no space to work and a herd of
unproductive Kiwis.

Something has got to give...and I don't like the look in the eye of my wife
or in that of her row of Tamworths. She already uses the tunnel to store
straw and hay in the winter, I can hardly get in the thing.

So I have to get the tunnel looking good and the Kiwis productive.

There is a good aerial photograph on
http://pages.britishlibrary.net/patg...otowalledg.htm You can see the
tunnel on the left
and the walled garden with its raised beds.

....and in answer to your question about sorting the piggy business out. No,
I'm still campaigning on animal health, you can read about it elsewhere on
the site, but it is off-topic for here.

Regards
Pat Gardiner
www.go-self-sufficient.com



--
Tony
tony·anson&zetnet·co·uk

"Jaques d'Alltrades" wrote in message
...
The message
from "Pat Gardiner" contains these words:
snip
Did the piggy thing get sorted to your satisfaction?

A spot of detergent and some warm water ought to shift the algae from
your polytunnel. Don't use washing powder as it may contain borax, and
could drain down and brutalise what's growing inside.

And, providing you have a male and a female Chinese gooseberry, you
should get fruit. You should get fruit if you plant them outside, too.

Hi Tony.

To take the last point first. Yes, both male and female. Two male, eight
female. No fruit.

Funny you should mention pigs....this is all John Seymour's fault

I was very taken with his idea of using pigs to do the spring digging. So I
made 10 small paddocks, with good stock fences, all interconnecting and with
water and nice little pig sties. An electric wire runs along the inside to
stop the piggies digging under.

It was brilliant. As we moved the pig from paddock to paddock through the
year, I would trot along behind planting something....and when the piggies
got beck to the beginning they would have a lovely time clearing any rubbish
and doing some digging.

The stock fencing along the drive looked a bit bare, so I planted Kiwis five
years ago on the side furthest from the pigs actually on the driveway.
Looked nice. The only potential problem was one of my wife's zoo eating
them. The cow was the most likely hooligan, when she was brought up for
milking twice a day to the cow shed opposite. But I shout at the pair of
them - seems to work.

Anyway three years ago we lost our pigs to the swine fever cull and my wife
was so upset that I thought we would never have any more pigs (I should have
known better!)

So I decided to make good use of the paddocks. I could not just put a
polytunnel anywhere because polytunnels and my wife's animal keeping don't
mix. Either the chickens, sheep or cow would get in there.

I decided to turn the smallest paddock into a protected tunnel area. It is
fenced obviously and has water - ideal. So I put up a 30 ft tunnel on all
this nice piggy fertilised soil.

Except that never having had a tunnel before, I failed to allow enough space
around it - just 18 inches....so I put ground cover plastic down to control
the weeds.

So there you are I have a green tunnel, with no space to work and a herd of
unproductive Kiwis.

Something has got to give...and I don't like the look in the eye of my wife
or in that of her row of Tamworths. She already uses the tunnel to store
straw and hay in the winter, I can hardly get in the thing.

So I have to get the tunnel looking good and the Kiwis productive.

There is a good aerial photograph on
http://pages.britishlibrary.net/patg...otowalledg.htm You can see the
tunnel on the left
and the walled garden with its raised beds.

....and in answer to your question about sorting the piggy business out. No,
I'm still campaigning on animal health, you can read about it elsewhere on
the site, but it is off-topic for here.

Regards
Pat Gardiner
www.go-self-sufficient.com



--
Tony
tony·anson&zetnet·co·uk

"Jaques d'Alltrades" wrote in message
...
The message
from "Pat Gardiner" contains these words:
snip
Did the piggy thing get sorted to your satisfaction?

A spot of detergent and some warm water ought to shift the algae from
your polytunnel. Don't use washing powder as it may contain borax, and
could drain down and brutalise what's growing inside.

And, providing you have a male and a female Chinese gooseberry, you
should get fruit. You should get fruit if you plant them outside, too.

Hi Tony.

To take the last point first. Yes, both male and female. Two male, eight
female. No fruit.

Funny you should mention pigs....this is all John Seymour's fault

I was very taken with his idea of using pigs to do the spring digging. So I
made 10 small paddocks, with good stock fences, all interconnecting and with
water and nice little pig sties. An electric wire runs along the inside to
stop the piggies digging under.

It was brilliant. As we moved the pig from paddock to paddock through the
year, I would trot along behind planting something....and when the piggies
got beck to the beginning they would have a lovely time clearing any rubbish
and doing some digging.

The stock fencing along the drive looked a bit bare, so I planted Kiwis five
years ago on the side furthest from the pigs actually on the driveway.
Looked nice. The only potential problem was one of my wife's zoo eating
them. The cow was the most likely hooligan, when she was brought up for
milking twice a day to the cow shed opposite. But I shout at the pair of
them - seems to work.

Anyway three years ago we lost our pigs to the swine fever cull and my wife
was so upset that I thought we would never have any more pigs (I should have
known better!)

So I decided to make good use of the paddocks. I could not just put a
polytunnel anywhere because polytunnels and my wife's animal keeping don't
mix. Either the chickens, sheep or cow would get in there.

I decided to turn the smallest paddock into a protected tunnel area. It is
fenced obviously and has water - ideal. So I put up a 30 ft tunnel on all
this nice piggy fertilised soil.

Except that never having had a tunnel before, I failed to allow enough space
around it - just 18 inches....so I put ground cover plastic down to control
the weeds.

So there you are I have a green tunnel, with no space to work and a herd of
unproductive Kiwis.

Something has got to give...and I don't like the look in the eye of my wife
or in that of her row of Tamworths. She already uses the tunnel to store
straw and hay in the winter, I can hardly get in the thing.

So I have to get the tunnel looking good and the Kiwis productive.

There is a good aerial photograph on
http://pages.britishlibrary.net/patg...otowalledg.htm You can see the
tunnel on the left
and the walled garden with its raised beds.

....and in answer to your question about sorting the piggy business out. No,
I'm still campaigning on animal health, you can read about it elsewhere on
the site, but it is off-topic for here.

Regards
Pat Gardiner
www.go-self-sufficient.com



--
Tony
tony·anson&zetnet·co·uk

"Jaques d'Alltrades" wrote in message
...
The message
from "Pat Gardiner" contains these words:
snip
Did the piggy thing get sorted to your satisfaction?

A spot of detergent and some warm water ought to shift the algae from
your polytunnel. Don't use washing powder as it may contain borax, and
could drain down and brutalise what's growing inside.

And, providing you have a male and a female Chinese gooseberry, you
should get fruit. You should get fruit if you plant them outside, too.

Hi Tony.

To take the last point first. Yes, both male and female. Two male, eight
female. No fruit.

Funny you should mention pigs....this is all John Seymour's fault

I was very taken with his idea of using pigs to do the spring digging. So I
made 10 small paddocks, with good stock fences, all interconnecting and with
water and nice little pig sties. An electric wire runs along the inside to
stop the piggies digging under.

It was brilliant. As we moved the pig from paddock to paddock through the
year, I would trot along behind planting something....and when the piggies
got beck to the beginning they would have a lovely time clearing any rubbish
and doing some digging.

The stock fencing along the drive looked a bit bare, so I planted Kiwis five
years ago on the side furthest from the pigs actually on the driveway.
Looked nice. The only potential problem was one of my wife's zoo eating
them. The cow was the most likely hooligan, when she was brought up for
milking twice a day to the cow shed opposite. But I shout at the pair of
them - seems to work.

Anyway three years ago we lost our pigs to the swine fever cull and my wife
was so upset that I thought we would never have any more pigs (I should have
known better!)

So I decided to make good use of the paddocks. I could not just put a
polytunnel anywhere because polytunnels and my wife's animal keeping don't
mix. Either the chickens, sheep or cow would get in there.

I decided to turn the smallest paddock into a protected tunnel area. It is
fenced obviously and has water - ideal. So I put up a 30 ft tunnel on all
this nice piggy fertilised soil.

Except that never having had a tunnel before, I failed to allow enough space
around it - just 18 inches....so I put ground cover plastic down to control
the weeds.

So there you are I have a green tunnel, with no space to work and a herd of
unproductive Kiwis.

Something has got to give...and I don't like the look in the eye of my wife
or in that of her row of Tamworths. She already uses the tunnel to store
straw and hay in the winter, I can hardly get in the thing.

So I have to get the tunnel looking good and the Kiwis productive.

There is a good aerial photograph on
http://pages.britishlibrary.net/patg...otowalledg.htm You can see the
tunnel on the left
and the walled garden with its raised beds.

....and in answer to your question about sorting the piggy business out. No,
I'm still campaigning on animal health, you can read about it elsewhere on
the site, but it is off-topic for here.

Regards
Pat Gardiner
www.go-self-sufficient.com



--
Tony
tony·anson&zetnet·co·uk

The message
from "Pat Gardiner" contains these words:

To take the last point first. Yes, both male and female. Two male, eight
female. No fruit.

Funny you should mention pigs....this is all John Seymour's fault

Good to hear your pecker is still raised.

Um, that will be misconstrued.....

Good to hear your spirits are not downwotsit.

I don't know what the timescale is for Chinese goosegog-fruiting
expectation: I have some seedlings which i intended planting out during
the imminent year, but if it's too long a wait I might be tempted to
grow something else and buy the New Zealand product.

Anybody? Relatively sunny East Angular.

--
Rusty Hinge http://www.users.zetnet.co.uk/hi-fi/tqt.htm

Dark thoughts about the Wumpus concerto played with piano,
iron bar and two sledge hammers. (Wumpus, 15/11/03)

The message
from "Pat Gardiner" contains these words:

To take the last point first. Yes, both male and female. Two male, eight
female. No fruit.

Funny you should mention pigs....this is all John Seymour's fault

Good to hear your pecker is still raised.

Um, that will be misconstrued.....

Good to hear your spirits are not downwotsit.

I don't know what the timescale is for Chinese goosegog-fruiting
expectation: I have some seedlings which i intended planting out during
the imminent year, but if it's too long a wait I might be tempted to
grow something else and buy the New Zealand product.

Anybody? Relatively sunny East Angular.

--
Rusty Hinge http://www.users.zetnet.co.uk/hi-fi/tqt.htm

Dark thoughts about the Wumpus concerto played with piano,
iron bar and two sledge hammers. (Wumpus, 15/11/03)

The message
from "Pat Gardiner" contains these words:

To take the last point first. Yes, both male and female. Two male, eight
female. No fruit.

Funny you should mention pigs....this is all John Seymour's fault

Good to hear your pecker is still raised.

Um, that will be misconstrued.....

Good to hear your spirits are not downwotsit.

I don't know what the timescale is for Chinese goosegog-fruiting
expectation: I have some seedlings which i intended planting out during
the imminent year, but if it's too long a wait I might be tempted to
grow something else and buy the New Zealand product.

Anybody? Relatively sunny East Angular.

--
Rusty Hinge http://www.users.zetnet.co.uk/hi-fi/tqt.htm

Dark thoughts about the Wumpus concerto played with piano,
iron bar and two sledge hammers. (Wumpus, 15/11/03)

"Janet Galpin and Oliver Patterson" wrote in
message ...
The message
from "Pat Gardiner" contains these words:

I suppose there comes a time in every polytunnel life...it starts to
look
disgusting

I can work out that a squeezy mop will remove the green on the outside,
but
what should I use as a chemical?

Something harmless that will still do the job of loosening before using
a
hose?

There are Kiwi below, near the sides on the outside and I'm still silly
enough to believe they will fruit one day.

Regards
Pat Gardiner
www.go-self-sufficient.com

I just use a mild solution of washing-up liquid. It seems enough to
shift the green. I find a soft broom works well but a squeezy mop sounds
good too. There's always a bit right on top which I can't reach, so only
two thirds gets cleaned.

Janet G

Hi,
I use washing up liquid inside and dilute household bleach outside (with a
kitchen floor mop) Outside to get the top third you can't reach there are
two options
1 tie a long bit of wood onto a ladder attach cushions and lean onto
plastic, or
2 the method I use, which is get an old towel soak in the dilute bleach
attach two long pieces of rope one for each side of the tunnel and pull it
back and forth across the top.
HTH
--
Charlie, gardening in Cornwall.
http://www.roselandhouse.co.uk
Holders of National Plant Collection of Clematis viticella (cvs)

The message
from "Pat Gardiner" contains these words:

To take the last point first. Yes, both male and female. Two male, eight
female. No fruit.

Funny you should mention pigs....this is all John Seymour's fault

Good to hear your pecker is still raised.

Um, that will be misconstrued.....

Good to hear your spirits are not downwotsit.

I don't know what the timescale is for Chinese goosegog-fruiting
expectation: I have some seedlings which i intended planting out during
the imminent year, but if it's too long a wait I might be tempted to
grow something else and buy the New Zealand product.

Anybody? Relatively sunny East Angular.

--
Rusty Hinge http://www.users.zetnet.co.uk/hi-fi/tqt.htm

Dark thoughts about the Wumpus concerto played with piano,
iron bar and two sledge hammers. (Wumpus, 15/11/03)