This week in your Kitchen Garden.

[Yuwipi Woman]

Do you have a big garden Yuwipi Woman? Mine is about 13 feet by 26 feet (iirc) and there's a paved area with a table (that shrinks as I lift paving stones to put in more plants!) I imagine American gardens to be pretty big. We're more squashed in here, especially in the middle of London.

My backyard is about 50" x 100", but the tilled area I have for garden plants is only 20"x20". I planted strawberries last week and peas a couple weeks ago. I have pumpkins and tomato plants from seed ready to go in mid-may.

For fruit right now I have three grape plants on the north and a Granny Smith apple tree, a self-fertile pear, and three white raspberries on the west.

I was a bit envious of my mother's neighbor back home. He had a tilled garden area that was about 50" x 100". He brought over a sack of asparagus for us. Of course, his house is on about 12 acres, so I can't begin to compete.

 

[fogbat]

Does anyone have any advice for getting hold of cheap large containers?

The big plant pots are actually quite expensive per pot, and I'm going to need quite a few. Any cheap alternatives would be gratefully pounced upon.

 

[cesare]

Does anyone have any advice for getting hold of cheap large containers?

The big plant pots are actually quite expensive per pot, and I'm going to need quite a few. Any cheap alternatives would be gratefully pounced upon.

Go and have a scout round the pound shops in Lewisham is my suggestion. I think I saw some containers in Pounstretcher in the centre the other week.

 

[gentlegreen]

Not fantastically cheap, but my big plants are in Builders' tubs - I only use black pots in my garden ...

No signs of cracking in spite of what's growing in it.

They're pretty well as good as new after 8 years or so outdoors.

 

[fogbat]

Cheers, both. Those pots look properly sturdy, GG.

I may have to brave the wilds of Lewisham

 

[cesare]

Cheers, both. Those pots look properly sturdy, GG.

I may have to brave the wilds of Lewisham

Cheap market, a TK Maxx, loads of pound shops and a decent cheap greasy spoon. What's not to like

 

[Yuwipi Woman]

Does anyone have any advice for getting hold of cheap large containers?

The big plant pots are actually quite expensive per pot, and I'm going to need quite a few. Any cheap alternatives would be gratefully pounced upon.

Have you checked Freecycle? They seem to be pretty common items there.

I've also gotten 5 gal buckets from the health food store. If they have a deli/bakery they might get food orders in those quantities.

 

[gentlegreen]

Going rate just over a tenner.

http://www.bizrate.co.uk/organisati...rd--tub+rope+handles__nodum--1__nwylf--1.html

 

[fogbat]

Going rate just over a tenner.

http://www.bizrate.co.uk/organisati...rd--tub+rope+handles__nodum--1__nwylf--1.html

They're great-looking pots, but I'm looking for 5 or 6 big pots, and can't really spare 60-odd quid for them.

Yuwipi Woman - yep, I'd wondered about catering places. I live above a kebab shop - might see whether they've got any big catering tubs they want to get rid of.

 

[Mrs Magpie]

Does anyone have any advice for getting hold of cheap large containers?

Took me a while to get back to this thread as I knew I'd be consumed with jealousy at the size of Yuwipi Woman's garden.


You know those big white builders bags with handles that topsoil gets delivered in? Bloody great for growing stuff in and are good for composting in too.....

 

[fogbat]

Another great idea, Mrs M, cheers

 

[Mrs Magpie]

I love gardening on the cheap, me

 

[fogbat]

I love gardening on the cheap, me

I've been wildly enthusiastic on the courgette and squash front this year (without even mentioning the chillies, sweet peppers, and beans), so even after giving a load away, I suspect I'm going to need a lot of planting spaces on the roof terrace.

 

[Mrs Magpie]

Check it can take the weight....

 

[fogbat]

Check it can take the weight....

Happily, there's a lot of thick, solid decking on top, so it _should_ be alright.

Though the image of it coming crashing down into my neighbour's bedroom is an amusing one

 

[sheothebudworths]

foggers, I got a couple of the vege planter grow bags (£4 for 2) and a couple of packs of the Haxnicks ones too (bit pricier at a tenner for three, but I was seduced by the pretty colours ).

Got them from gardencentreonline.co.uk which has some reasonably cheap offers, although ofcourse then you have to buy enough to justify the postage (a fiver).

 

[prunus]

Does anyone have any advice for getting hold of cheap large containers?

The big plant pots are actually quite expensive per pot, and I'm going to need quite a few. Any cheap alternatives would be gratefully pounced upon.

I'm trying potatoes, runner beans and courgettes in B&Q rubble sacks this year - £2.99 for 10, thick strong plastic - poking a few holes in the bottom and using an about 30/70 sieved soil/compost mix. Worth a try I thought - I too couldn't find bit planters at an appetising price.

 

[Melinda]

Labelling pots...

Anyone else not so shit hot at this? Didnt seeds packs used to come with little plastic labels?

 

[fogbat]

Labelling pots...

Anyone else not so shit hot at this? Didnt seeds packs used to come with little plastic labels?

I bought three hundred little taggy, sticky things that you write on then poke into the soil. A couple of quid from Robert Dyas.

 

[Melinda]

I no longer have access to such quality emporiums.

I miss Woolworths.

 

[BettyBlue]

Yesterday i bought a mahoosive strawberry plant from Wilko's (2.98!), also 2 each of cucumber, courgette and aubergine. They're currently camping under the cloche i got from the 99p shop, on top of the weed suppressant fleece. I got rhubarb last week, altho it's not looking too healthy at the mo. I've planted out some red onions and garlic, everything else is still in toilet roll tubes or little pots in the mini greenhouse tho.

I repotted quite a bit into plastic cups the other day as well, and it looks like it's done them the world of good. I burnt 3 holes in the base (in a kind of triangle), then melted a channel up the sides from the holes to about 1/2 inch under the rim. Then inbetween these i melted another channel from just under the rim to halfways down the sides, so there's 3 long and 3 short lines. I read it in a book years ago ('no dig no weed organic gardening' or something), and this is the first time i've tried it out...it's supposed to encourage really strong root developement. I might still have the book somewhere...i'll have to try and find it.

Just found the fattest snail sat next to a demolished runner bean plant...completely unashamed, the swine! Hope he enjoyed his short flight into the cemetary at the end of the garden!

 

[fogbat]

My first chillies of the year:

Grown on an overwintered plant, admittedly...

 

[Strumpet]

Cor blimey guvnah! You've got some lovely shiny ones! ^





No sign of poppies here

 

[Melinda]

Oooh!

Is this the first produce on this year's thread? (On last year's plant)

 

[fogbat]

All the leaves and branches are new growth since the new year. Around October / November last year I chopped it back to one 8" high bare stalk.

 

[BettyBlue]

All the leaves and branches are new growth since the new year. Around October / November last year I chopped it back to one 8" high bare stalk.

I always thought that they only lasted a year (season, whatever)...wish i had known before i lobbed mine out!

 

[fogbat]

I always thought that they only lasted a year (season, whatever)...wish i had known before i lobbed mine out!

About half of mine survived the winter, kept inside and watered sparsely.

The regrowth has been bizarre - some have come back really bushy and leafy, while others have become really long and stalky. It seems to be according to species, rather than location.

One has grown a fine set of new leaves and branches, but the flowers and buds seem to be rotting and half-dead from the outset. I think I have a zombie plant.

 

[northernhord]

Giant red mustard, black seed simpson lettuce.

 

[Yuwipi Woman]

Labelling pots...

Anyone else not so shit hot at this? Didnt seeds packs used to come with little plastic labels?

I label mine with some labels I made. I took straight, 2 ft pieces of fairly thick galvanized wire and wired a paperclip to the top. When I want to stick a label on something, I write it on a 3x5 index card and slide it into the paperclip. (The galvanized wire was cut from some wire tomato cages that had seen better days.)

 

[gentlegreen]

Giant red mustard, black seed simpson lettuce.

*takes notes*