A polytunnel is the perfect choice for hobby gardeners or commercial growers looking to extend the growing season. Here at Premier Polytunnels, we offer a range of polytunnels for sale that allow gardeners to create their dream under cover growing area for their crops and plants.
One of the advantages of polytunnels is that they are available with a wide range of polytunnel accessories so you can create a bespoke growing space that suits your individual needs and the needs of your chosen plants. Every polytunnel we offer comes with a selection of optional extras, which can be included at the point of purchase or which can be added on at a later date to allow gardeners to continue to improve their polytunnels at any time.
Many of our customers opt for a standard polytunnel kit in their chosen size, which provides them with everything they need to get their tunnel up and running on a soil base and start growing their own crops straightaway. Other customers opt for an “all singing, all dancing” polytunnel, adding on all of the available additions and accessories.
Polytunnel Accessories
So, which polytunnel accessories are you going to need? Ultimately the choice really is yours, but it’s worthwhile considering what your needs and preferences are, and what your chosen plants may need.
If you’re planning on building a polytunnel in a spot that will be in direct sunlight all day, ventilation will be important during the warmer months. On small polytunnels, the door options you select can provide ample air circulation, whereas crops growing in large commercial polytunnels can benefit from side ventilation on one or both sides of the structure. Many crops thrive in the humidity created by a polythene cover, however some plants may need lots of ventilation to keep them healthy.
Growing your own delicious fresh food in a polytunnel means that you are in control of how much water your crops receive. We offer manual and automatic overhead irrigation systems, which offer a simple, effective way of bringing water to your plants. While some customers choose to use irrigation kits in their polytunnels, those who are building their polytunnel on an allotment may not have access to mains water and opt to harvest rainwater using our bespoke polytunnel gutters instead.
For gardeners using their polytunnels to bring on seeds and young plants in trays and pots, staging supports or trestle benches are useful additions to their tunnel. Vegetable growers growing straight in the ground or in raised beds may simply want a piece of ground cover to act as a weed control sheet for areas inside their polytunnel.
Many of our customers tell us that they plan to build a polytunnel on a very blustery site and, for that reason, they choose from our selection of ‘belts and braces’ options to add extra strength to the structure. Crop Bars are a popular polytunnel accessory for adding extra strength and if you’re planning to grow in hanging baskets or want to tie up tomato plants, Crop Bars are the ideal addition to include with your polytunnel kit.
When it comes to deciding what doors you want, we offer a range of options. A garden polytunnel is supplied as standard with a single hinged door at the front and a dummy door, which is a sealed unit, at the back – this is a perfect choice for gardeners building their polytunnel in the corner of their plot and only need a door at the front for access. Double doors or choosing to add on a door at the rear of the polytunnel too is a popular choice for schools, meaning that when the bell rings the children have two points of exit.
A standard polytunnel kit, from 6ft wide all the way up to 24ft wide, is supplied with a polytunnel cover which is secured by being buried into the ground (we call it the trenching method). While many customers choose to bury their polytunnel cover in the ground, others opt to use base rails to secure the cover at ground level. Base rails are a popular choice if building a large polytunnel or when the tunnel is to be built on rocky ground. Gardener and author Charles Dowding says his preference is to use the trenching method.
So, as you can see, when it comes to deciding what polytunnel accessories you need, the choice really is yours. A polytunnel puts you in control of nature and we let you be in control of your polytunnel specification.