You may be wondering what on earth I lied about and what the heck are rain boobs, so allow me to explain.

Hear me out.

A while ago I put up a post saying it would be the last polytunnel update. If you don’t know the situation, I built a DIY polytunnel out of scrap as I can’t afford to buy one for the garden. It took me a while and looks a bit like a ‘Frankenstein’ polytunnel but I love it all the same. I suppose it’s like having an ugly child, but I digress.

That post wasn’t ever going to be the last one if I had thought about it for half a second because there were bound to be problems. Lots of problems as it turns out but the biggest one has been meteorological mammaries, or as I like to call them ‘rain boobs’:

I had covered the sides of the polytunnel with bubble wrap as the cover is basically netting and I’m trying to keep the heat in (and the dog’s wee out). I continued covering the sides with the bubble wrap and had the idea of covering the roof too but every time it rained, this droopy disaster is what I had to face.

Action had to be taken.

So the other day, I decided to make adjustments. I started by removing all the bubble wrap from the roof. I had put it on lengthways so it didn’t take too long to remove.

I then decided to put it on across the top instead of the length of the structure.

But how to ensure, or at least try, to keep it in place? I thought so hard my little brain hurt but I came up with this:

Netting. It’s all I had and I thought the bubble wrap wouldn’t be able to hang down when it rained. Then I had another thought: I needed to secure the netting or it would just be pulled down with the rain boobs. I therefore went round with cable ties and tried my best to secure the netting to the structure so that if (when) it rains it will run down the sides instead of pooling down.

As for the plants, they seem perfectly happy!

My new system will be tested apparently over the next few days as we are in for an almighty rainstorm. Whatever happens, I have an area to grow plants in which I didn’t have before. At the risk of sounding smug, I’m very happy about that!