Mark Gatter

An updated edition of the definitive, easy-to-follow guide to growing crops in a polytunnel year-round. Are you using your polytunnel, also known as high tunnel or hoop house, to its full potential? If so, you’ll be harvesting fresh crops all year round – sweet potatoes and celery in November; winter radish, baby carrots and celeriac in early February; salad leaves right through the winter. Even in the ‘hungry gap’ in early spring you’ll have a choice of new potatoes, pak choi, peas, tender cabbages, beetroot and more. Now in its second edition, How to Grow Food in Your Polytunnel shares up-to-date information on everything you need to make the most of the warm, sheltered microclimate this precious space provides. Illustrated with beautiful photos and diagrams throughout, the guide includes a detailed crop-by-crop guide to the growing year, dedicated chapters on growing for each season, and a handy sowing and harvesting calendar to help with planning. Increase your crop quality, yield and harvesting period with this helpful guide.

Are you using your polytunnel to its full potential? If so you’ll be harvesting fresh crops all year round – sweet potatoes and late celery in November; winter radish, baby carrots and celeriac in early February; salads leaves right through the winter. Even in the `hungry gap’ you’ll have a choice of new potatoes, pak choi, peas, tender cabbages, beetroot and more. How to Grow Food in Your Polytunnel has all the information you need to make the most of this precious covered space, including: • a detailed crop-by-crop guide to the growing year • dedicated chapters on growing for each season, including the `hungry gap’ • a sowing and harvesting calendar to help with planning.

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 mouth-watering grapes in high summer. But once you’ve decided to invest in a polytunnel, there are many questions to be answered, including: • Do you need planning permission? • What are the different sizes and types you can buy? • Where should you put it, and how do you put it up? • What can you use it for, how do you look after it, and what are the likely problems? The Polytunnel Handbook looks at all aspects of using a polytunnel, 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. For the DIY enthusiast there is a full set of instructions for building a polytunnel from scratch, and the authors explain how to keep your polytunnel productive in every season.