I selected a 12m long Filclair ‘Nordiclair 800′ gothic arched polytunnel greenhouse.
This polytunnel greenhouse fulfils all the needs we have.
It’s 8m wide and 4m high. So we have 100m² for our plants, the heater and the water buffer storage.
It has a screw auger fastening system and is very quick to set up like to pitch a tent. Only 2 days for complete building.
The good thermal insulation with this type of polytunnel is made with a double-foil with a lot of air between the layers.

I originally wanted the new highly transparent and UV penetrable ETFE foil for the polytunnel.
But neither the polytunnel manufacturer nor the dealer wanted to sell ETFE foil to us (with warranty).
They said the ETFE foil is difficult to handle and it’s not yet ripe for productive use.
So we used the 5 season polyethylene foil with a light penetration rate of 80%.

The fully automatic gravity-operated water system is installed (later more about that topic).
The temperature-controlled heating is installed.
The fully automatic ventilation system isn’t ready now.

Anchor anchorage system

The contractor on the ladder

The foil tubes. There is a rope in the foil tube to spread the layers and put air in between them.

Nearly ready

Greenhouse ground

Moved in

It’s slowly filling up with plants

We need a place for the forest garden nursery.
We decided to build a large terrace on the hill from the house to the forest garden area.
The terrace should be large enough for 3 x 100 m² greenhouses and should also have some extra room for large plants in big pots.

We engaged a company to do the earthwork.
I talked to the staff of the earthwork company on the site and explained them in great detail what we want.
- A in contour terrace in the middle of the hill.
- 40 meter long, 12 meter wide with 3° inclination.
The earthworks company told me that they actually have no more appointments available.
If they can do it, then only with a very short notice before the job.
We agreed to that. This was a mistake.
They called when I was away and my cell phone battery was empty.

So I missed the earthworks.

You can imagine that things have evolved naturally not as-planned.
No catastrophic mistakes, but serious enough to make me worry.
- no constant 3° inclination over the full area and length of the terrace.
- no even surface over the full area and length of the terrace.

This is a problem on very heavy rain.
The hill area above the terrace has a size of approx. 1000 m².
On very heavy rain you get 1 liter in a minute per square meter in this region.
This means 1000 liter water every minute from the hill area above.
If this massive amount of water doesn’t flow with right speed over the terrace you get a flood or runoffs.
We will see.
If the water speed is wrong, we have to make swales in the hill area above the terrace to reduce the water flow from the hill.
Lesson learned: NEVER EVER LET EARTHWORKS HAPPEN WITHOUT YOU!