The Polytunnel Handbook: Planning Siting Erecting Using Maintaining [Paperback]

Andy McKee (Author), Mark Gatter (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 15, 2009

The last decade has seen an unprecedented rise in demand for organic fruit and vegetables, and each year more of us are discovering that homegrown food is fresher, tastier, and more nutritious than food shipped in from elsewhere. A polytunnel can be used as an affordable, low-carbon aid to growing your own food all year round, from crispy salads and fresh vegetables in the dead of winter to juicy melons and mouthwatering grapes in high summer.

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. There are chapters on developing healthy soil and preventing pests, and a jargon-free guide to the range of often mystifying accessories that many tunnel retailers offer. In addition, the do-it-yourself enthusiast will find a full set of instructions for building a polytunnel from scratch, and the authors explain how to keep your polytunnel productive in every season.

Editorial Reviews

Review

Polytunnels have a key role to play in the grow-your-own revolution, and a comprehensive guide such as this is long overdue. -- Simon McEwan, Editor Country Smallholding magazine

About the Author

Andy McKee first grew vegetables with his father at the age of five, and since then he has grown food in situations ranging from a seventeenth-story window box to guerrilla gardening in the middle of a Christmas-tree plantation. McKee 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, England, and is entirely self-sufficient in vegetables.



Mark Gatter began growing vegetables while homesteading in northern California in the early eighties and has been an avid 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 eleven sheep, several chickens, and two dogs.

Product Details

• Paperback: 128 pages
• Publisher: Green Books; Reprint edition (September 15, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1900322455
• ISBN-13: 978-1900322454
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.1 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 2.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #473,653 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #93 in Books > Crafts, Hobbies & Home > How-to & Home Improvements > Decks & Patios

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

19 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars don't buy, December 19, 2009

By 

organic "gardener" (vancouver) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Polytunnel Handbook: Planning Siting Erecting Using Maintaining (Paperback)

buy an elliot coleman book instead (Four Season.... would be a good one to start with). he has built and used hoop greenhouses for decades. this book gives very little information on how to build on yourself. given the title its very disapointing.

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars There's not much here, April 19, 2010

By 

Michael A. Duvernois (Minneapolis, MN United States) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Polytunnel Handbook: Planning Siting Erecting Using Maintaining (Paperback)

I was extremely disappointed in this book. There was little in the way of practical information at all. I'd recommend The Winter Harvest Handbook: Year Round Vegetable Production Using Deep Organic Techniques and Unheated Greenhouses or Four-Season Harvest: Organic Vegetables from Your Home Garden All Year Long for better coverage of unheated greenhouses for extending the growing season. They have extensive experience with it, and have lots of useful information.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Re Polytunnel Handbook, December 24, 2010

By 

Gregory L. Hill - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Polytunnel Handbook: Planning Siting Erecting Using Maintaining (Paperback)

This book didn't have the level of detail I wanted for construction and use of polytunnels in a mini farm setting.. There are other books out there that are much more informative...