Caledonia in the the Spring

We've gone from snow cover to sunburn in a few short days. Those in the know reckon '3 snows after Easter' and I think we've had them. The weather forecast here is pretty reliable, Environment Canada, the last frost date isn't until early May, but the temperatures are now forecast consistently above freezing. Fantastic - time to get doing...

You may know that one item we brought with us from the UK was a 18' x 32' polytunnel (term not used here, folk look at you blankly - it's a greenhouse, or a hoophouse). We had bought the tunnel not long after we moved to Skye, but never found the time to put it up - that's five years or more that we've had it, making that a very long erection indeed (sorry).

We could not find any flat ground at all! 76 acres, and not enough flat ground for a wee polytunnel. So, we've had to be inventive. You'll see from the photos,that we dug one corner in below ground, and I bought some tubing and made my own 5' ground tubes for the other end. That is going to cause other problems with fitting the plastic, opening doors, bed layout, but I think we have it sorted.

I can't remember if I mentioned the Hun yet? He's a 13hp BCS 2-wheel tractor with a 30" rotovator attachment. Beast. Why the Hun? Well, he's 'a tiller' - boomboom. The Hun cost us a fortune, but will handle most of the land cultivation. We do have a tractor with single furrow plough and disk harrows, but for small beds, and small turning circles, we feel the compaction and damage the tractor would cause isn't justified.

So, we now have 56 x 30' rows cultivated, plus some rows for fruit bushes. Working on the fences around this plot, so that we are ready come the last frost date to get a whole load of stuff in the ground.

Yesterday, and today, there was a frost first thing, but the thermometer (in the sun) had reached 34deg. by afternoon - wow!