A big part about growing or gardening is knowing what is likely to happen, to anticipate the
changing seasons, temperature ranges, rain fall patterns, frost dates, and possible diseases
or even pest damage.
And then it’s our job to plan on growing around what is more or less predictable, and
to use preventative measures, or to be ready to respond when situations arise.
This is perhaps the foundation of being a good grower, of understanding the likelihood
of conditions and events, and to work within your context and risk.
And occasionally something very unexpected happens, something that you can’t really
anticipate or prepare for, and this happened to me recently when this fairly new polytunnel
in the Black Plot was severely damaged.
About a month ago, a fire destroyed a compost facility in our community.
It’s a demonstration site that was set up and managed by a neighbour of mine, which
was right beside my new polytunnel.
It was an open structure with wooden posts and beams, and pallets for a roof structure,
and there was lots of different materials contained within it, including high carbon
material for composting.
Everything was destroyed in this fire, including the worm bins, composting bays, the tumblers,
tools, and the entire structure.
Thankfully no one was hurt in this fire, and even my hens, who were roosting in their house
less than 10m away from the fire were unharmed and seemed unfazed by the event.
But it was a very hot fire, which melted plastic cones, windbreak material, buckets, pretty
much anything within 3-4m of building building.
Unfortunately, my polytunnel is less than 4m from this composting structure, and large
sections of the plastic were melted away, especially at the location of the metal structure
where the heat wasn’t able to dissipate.
Thankfully no crops were damaged as I had cleared everything out and was about to plant
overwintering crops.
Fire happened early on a Sunday morning, at about the same time there was other damage
in the local area.
The Community Farm had just put up a new polytunnel across the lane, one week earlier, and it
had two large holes cut in the plastic that night, obviously with sharp knife, which was really nasty.
And a hundred meters down the lane, the windows of a tractor were smashed, and a load of hay
was thrown from a loft down into the stables were horses were being kept.
The fire was obviously connected to these other malicious acts, whether it was an accident,
or messing around that got out of control, or whether the composting station was deliberately set on fire.
But looking at everything else that happened that night, and the fact nothing else in the
Black Plot area was touched, I’m assuming that the melting of my polytunnel was collateral damage.
So I don’t think I was directly targeted, which helps a bit psychologically, but I still
have to deal with the damage.
It is going to take a lot of work to clean up the mess of the burnt out composting facility,
and to rebuild it.
It is by far the biggest loss on that eventful night, and hopefully it will be rebuilt within
the next few months.
The cut holes in the farm polytunnel could be patched up.
The remaining plastic seems structurally sound, and it has held up well in a few storms that
we’ve had.
Another smaller sheet of plastic can be stretched over the two end bays where the holes are
and taped to the existing plastic.
It should do the job, though it's not ideal.
For my polytunnel, I needed to replace entire sheet of plastic, as the structural integrity
of the sheet was just too compromised, especially for such a windy site.
This involved cutting out damaged area, digging out most of the soil from the trenches that
was weighing down the edges of the plastic, and then unscrewing it from around the doors.
We then pulled off the full sheet, and tried to be as gentle with it as we could, so that
as much of the plastic as possible can be reused in the future for other purposes.
I then bought a whole new sheet of plastic, and dug out the trenches again, and fixed
up a few things.
We then put on the new plastic, buried the edges and fixed the door frames at both ends,
tightening the plastic as much as we could.
A few weeks after the fire, and I was back up and running, and actually in few ways I
was better off.
The old plastic had been loosened by hurricane last year, I had been able to tighten it but
not in an ideal way, but this new plastic is more secure.
The trenches are deeper and wider, so there's more weight on the edges of plastic holding it down.
I had been able to fix the door frames, which had been pulled out of alignment, and so now
the doors are hung better.
I’m also getting more skilled at folding and tightening the plastic at the gable ends,
so that it sheds more of the water, and is more secure in the wind.
I also lined the entire outside perimeter of the polytunnel with landscape fabric, with
one edge burred alongside the plastic, and this will really help to keep the weeds away.
It’s something I wish I had done when I first put up this polytunnel, as it would
have saved a lot of hassle, and a lot of work.
I also took the opportunity to bring in a load of topsoil to raise the level of one
end of the polytunnel, where the topsoil was a little bit more shallow.
This task was made easier by being able to push wheelbarrows through the side of the
polytunnel frame while the plastics off, rather than having to go all the way to the end and
in through the doors.
This polytunnel is now in better condition than it was, with plastic that should last even longer.
There’s more topsoil in it, and the entire area within and around the polytunnel has
been cleared up, and it should be a lot easier to manage in the future.
And I have the unexpected resource of a large piece of slightly used, high quality plastic
for other projects, for use as row covers or even for a few other smaller growing spaces.
There are of course costs related to all of this.
The new sheet of plastic cost me about €600, not counting the several days that it took
me to do all the work.
It also set back the production in this polytunnel by a few weeks, and I lost opportunity to
plant a few of the overwintering crops, and it delayed work in other areas of gardens.
And I also wasn't able to produce any videos for this YouTube channel while this was all going on.
The total loss of possible income would be substantially more than the cost of the plastic,
and it has set me back quite a bit in my program of work for this autumn.
But, strangely, I haven’t been overly demoralised by all of this, I think partially because
I was able to fix a few things that were bothering me, and this valuable growing space is now better off.
But also because I know that it was a freak event that I couldn't have prevented, or foreseen.
And, because enough people in my community are frustrated and angry about these acts
of vandalism, I don’t really feel the need to be.
Now that the polytunnel is up again, I really hope nothing happens to it; there is always
a risk with polytunnels of storm damage, or another act of vandalism.
And because my gardens are within an open site of the ecovillage, which isn't a gated
community, there is perhaps a greater risk of damage compared to a garden on private land.
But in my experience, this risk is far outweighed by the support from the community.
I had lots of help with the big tasks of digging out the damaged plastic, and in putting up
the new sheet, and could have had a lot more help if I had asked for it.
People in our community have stepped with fundraising to help pay for the damage to
my polytunnel, and on the Community Farm, but most importantly to help rebuild the compost
demonstration facility, and this includes the beginnings of security measures to help
reduce risk of this kind of thing happening again.
This solidarity from my community has been wonderful, and it looks like the financial
cost of all this will be sorted.
Lots of people want to support me in getting back to work, to continue to develop the gardens,
to grow great vegetables, and to learn and explore, and to share as much as I can with
the rest of the world.
My job is to keep going.
While the support that I’m getting from my local community is wonderful, I'm also
delighted with the support that this Youtube channel has received.
It’s amazing to have so many people from around the world watching, sharing and commenting
on all of the videos that I make,.
And there’s small group of people who have taken the extra step, to help contribute financially
to my project, through my Patreon page, linked here.
With all of this support, my project is becoming much more viable, and I want to thank everybody
for that, and thank you all for watching.