Author Topic: Goodbye polytunnel (Read 2902 times)

ACE · « **on:** February 17, 2022, 18:45:54 »

Come on Eunice I'm all ready for you. Tied everything down this afternoon but said goodbye to the poly. With what is going to hit us tonight it will be a miracle if it is still there in the morning. 90mph predicted. Long tie downs put over but I expect it will still be shredded. Not having another one I shall build a lean to hothouse with a load of clear heavyweight corrugated I found a few years ago left by some fly tippers.

Beersmith · « **Reply #1 on:** February 17, 2022, 22:12:37 »

Well don't be tempted to visit until it has all blown through. 90 mph is very scarey and potentially very dangerous. Local forecast here is 35 to 40 mph winds with gusts up to 65 mph.

Rule number one is stay safe everyone. Also worth remembering rule number two, which is stay safe, and a quick mention for rule number three which is stay safe.

Palustris · « **Reply #2 on:** February 18, 2022, 08:28:57 »

Our poly tunnel survived with no extra precautions the non-hurricane when we had the last Red warning. Being an arch shape we reckoned that the wind just lifted over it.

Obelixx · « **Reply #3 on:** February 18, 2022, 09:31:43 »

Our polytunnel survived, unmarked, when a tornado went by just 40metres away during storm Alex in October 2020. The stone built barns with huge oak beams and corrugated iron roofs did not do so well.

Slabs of stone flown next door. beams with roofing panels attached flown up, round and then flung 50 or more metres away. Other beams just knocked loose and lots of twisted corrugated iron.

Before AFter

Flung far

ACE · « **Reply #4 on:** February 18, 2022, 11:17:19 »

It's a 10 wheelie binner down our road but 110mph just registered at the Needles.

ACE · « **Reply #5 on:** February 18, 2022, 13:49:41 »

Starting to ease a bit now, but not before a peak of 122mph. Dogs did not get their walk on the beach today. Still on the bright side some beach huts have been blown along the front, might have a nice colourful shed soon.

saddad · « **Reply #6 on:** February 18, 2022, 13:58:14 »

Fingers crossed for the new shed... free wood, always welcome!

Paulh · « **Reply #7 on:** February 18, 2022, 22:52:00 »

Behind my back garden fence is an ancient lane whose hedges have become tall, thin beech and hawthorn trees with a few larger sycamores and oaks. I prune my part of the hedge back every few years, as a screen from the lane and the houses behind. The other side is not looked after and the trees have a lot of ivy in them.

This morning I realised that a couple of dead, ivy entangled branches had blown off one of those further trees and neatly fallen inside and parallel to my fence. The fence seems to be undamaged, what they are resting on will be OK, and they seem to be clear of my lovely cornus alternifolia "Argentea". Phew!

The branches are just too heavy for me to move without cutting them up, so it would not have been good if they had fallen into the lane and hit someone.

ACE · « **Reply #8 on:** February 19, 2022, 10:11:41 »

As I predicted, poly shredded. The allotments look like Beirut, sheds tumbled everywhere, polys up in the trees, one plot holder took the cover off the poly and it still twisted the framework. My shed survived mainly because I drove a few stakes in and ran some big screws through them into the corners. Loads of daleks to be reclaimed in the top hedge.

Palustris · « **Reply #9 on:** February 19, 2022, 13:47:01 »

Sad!
Sorry folks got such damage. Daft as it seems here we have had worse wind and rain on non- storm warning days.

gray1720 · « **Reply #10 on:** February 19, 2022, 21:23:43 »

I will find out tomorrow but, as my tool store is in the lee of my compost bins, I suspect it'll be fine. How many other compost bins, seats, tools etc I will have gained may be another matter!

Beersmith · « **Reply #11 on:** February 19, 2022, 22:20:19 »

The wind speeds on the Isle of Wight were astonishing. Commiserations on all the damage.

We got off lightly. I spent fifteen minutes this morning checking my plots. No damage at all. Around the site more widely there was some damage. One or two poly tunnels flattened but most fully intact. Some fruit cages blown over but most were fine. In some ways it is perplexing why people construct such flimsy stuff. Lots of litter but that is easily dealt with.

Wind effects can be puzzling. Five trees in a line along a nearby road. Number four uprooted, but the rest unharmed. Didn't even look the most exposed.

All in all I just feel very lucky.

pumkinlover · « **Reply #12 on:** February 20, 2022, 08:03:28 »

We seem to have been lucky, even our ancient triple re-cycled polytunnel is still hanging on.
Just hope everyone stays safe as today's forecast is still bad, just not as bad as Eunice.

ACE · « **Reply #13 on:** February 20, 2022, 08:45:06 »

Just another allotment setback for most of us, a bag of nails and a roll of gaffer tape and we will be back to normal in no time. Safe indoors with no danger to life or limb, unless you are a tv reporter standing in the most dangerous place they can find. Luckily there were no ferries running or else they would have been here telling you not to travel.

ACE · « **Reply #14 on:** February 21, 2022, 14:16:11 »

Franklin today, a mere breeze 87.2mph. Loads more trees down that were already shaken loose by Eunice.

gray1720 · « **Reply #15 on:** February 21, 2022, 15:07:55 »

Haven't been out to mine yet - it was so nasty on Sunday I didn't even bother, still got some veg in at home. Will probably look tomorrow. It will be interesting to see what the East fence has collected!

Beersmith · « **Reply #16 on:** February 22, 2022, 20:52:21 »

As it turned out our site took more damage from storm Franklin than Eunice.

Storm effects can be very localised. I was aware that the Isle of Wight got hit very hard. Apparently parts of Kent were also hit hard. The power station at Grain in Kent had one of three exhaust chimneys flattened.

Luckily the former 800 ft chimney had been demolished some years earlier and the old generators removed. Would it have withstood the storm? Who can say? A more modern plant based on combined cycle gas turbines came on line in 2010. Still burning fossil fuel but far more efficient and far lower CO2 emissions than the old coal based units.

gray1720 · « **Reply #17 on:** February 22, 2022, 21:27:19 »

Finally got out to the plot today, and it wasn't too bad. Various bits annd pieces strewn about, but we are pretty windswept so stuff migrates East most years anyway - though someone's entire shed is now at 90 degrees to its old orientation.

Disappointingly, I didn't gain anything, bar a very smashed-up plastic flowerpot. The brassica cage is a bit of a mess, but a few squid spent on new connectors and it'll be fine again. Might Guy it next year (at which point we will get Easterly gales and it'll fall over the other way. The celandines are starting to bloom too, so the pollinators will have some sustenance. I know some people think they are an effing nuisance, but we are so wioondswept that they are dying back before it's warm and calm enough to put anything else in, so no trouble at all.

ACE · « **Reply #18 on:** February 23, 2022, 20:09:35 »

I organised a gang of us to clear the pathways of debris and roll a few sheds back on the plots for those who cannot manage on their own or have childcare problems. A big turn out which and it is pleasing to know that people care about their fellow plotters. There is going to be quite a few bonfires once the wind is blowing away from the few houses in the area.

Obelixx · « **Reply #19 on:** February 23, 2022, 20:27:56 »

Sounds great. A proper community effort.

Did you win any free beach huts for new sheds?

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Author Topic: Goodbye polytunnel (Read 2902 times)

pumkinlover