If you have a polytunnel in your garden, you should remember that a polytunnel can be far more than simply a place to grow food for you and your household. A polytunnel can also be a place to relax and escape from the stresses and strains of everyday life. It can be lovely to have a seating area in your polytunnel, a place to sit and contemplate your efforts, or simply to sit and read a book, or think, on a sunny day. The thing is, a seating area will take up some of your valuable growing space. Minimising the amount of space required, and therefore maximising the amount of space available to grow food, is the aim of each of the following innovative seating ideas for a polytunnel:
A hammock has long been a solution of choice for relaxing in tight spaces – such as on board a ship. Officers used to string a hammock in their tiny cabins, to allow space below for activities when they were not sleeping. Why not apply the same principle in your polytunnel? Stringing a hammock in your polytunnel will allow you to have a space to relax without giving up much, if any, of your growing area. You could even use the hammock to have a nap, for when the gardening all gets to be just a little bit too much hard work.
A hanging chair would work on the same principle. Suspended above growing plants, it would not interfere with your growing efforts but would allow you to have a seat and rest when you need or want to. A hanging chair can easily be made from sturdy fabric re-purposed from something you are no longer using, strung with rope. A fabric hanging chair would also be easily folded up and out of the way when it was not in use, to give you easier access to plants below.
If you really want to wow people with your gardening know-how and dedication, how about working on a long-term project and creating a living chair in your polytunnel? By carefully training a living tree, you can create a seat fit for a gardening king or queen – something truly unique and beautifully organic that suits the space down to the ground. Whether you make somewhere to perch or a regal throne, a living sculpture seat could be just the thing to elevate your polytunnel haven to something truly special.
