Relaxed Farming - our farm in your classroom

And then came the tricky bit! We needed to cut the polythene to fit the doors - the polythene is very strong to lean against but a sharp knife or the edge of a shovel makes a nasty hole which needs repair tape as soon as possible. Chris made sure we had the polythene as tight as it needed to be before we cut and then started stapling to the wooden door frames. There was an awful lot of spare polythene which can be used to make 'mini' polytunnels or 'cloches' for plants that do not grow too tall...

We had to 'pleat' the polythene to fit the door which was quite tricky. It needed to be arranged in order that the pleats were not too big so that just a small amount of rain water could collect in them - it did take us quite a few goes to get this right! The pleats are made so that rain water collects in them on the 'outside' of the polytunnel, rather than having the channels where the pleats are on the inside where moisture from the polytunnel may collect and stagnate. We really do not want stagnant water sitting in the polytunnel as this is a habitat for mosquitoes and other bugs which are not welcome!!