Blimey, what a day. Been hard at it since about 8.30 this morning (OK, we knocked off at 3.30 to go to the park). And we stopped for lunch. And a few drink breaks in there too.

But all that aside, it’s been a hard day’s hot work here in sunny Sale. Luckily we roped in a friend to help, otherwise I’d still be digging holes! So here’s how the day went:

This is what we started with. 18 Packages, 200kg of flat-packed polytunnel, delivered promptly by First Tunnels.

Here’s where it’s going to go – note the 1m-diameter Pampas grass I’ve got to remove first (back -left corner)

By 10.30 the Pampas grass was out, and the posts for the polytunnel hoops were all in the right places.

By lunctime we had all-but-one of the posts buried in the ground, ready for the hoops. Look at that glorious sunny day!

By 2.40 we had all the hoops up – this was a lot easier than digging the holes for the posts!

And then, one teabreak later, at 3.30 we had the ridgepole up too.

Not bad for a first day’s effort. Would have been a nightmare on my own, but we have made good progress. If the weather hold there should be some good pics tomorrow too.