More Thrifty Gardening

Today, I could wait no longer to plant something. Luckily, for Christmas, my daughter Meg bought me a fabulously cute little herb planting kit so I spent 15 minutes pottering and planting my lovely herbs. They are now sitting on my kitchen windowsill waiting to grow.

I then spent a good 30 minutes looking through my all my gardening books and dreaming of what seeds I'm going to plant this year. I haven't finalised me seed list yet so that will be another post but I did manage to find some lovely ideas in one of my books which I had no idea I had. I found it tucked away at the bottom of the bookcase and I don't even remember buying it. When I looked through it though, I can certainly see why I bought it. I am all for thrifty gardening. I love re-purposing old things, things that would probably just be thrown out. Last year, I planted some herbs in an old wicker basket that had been scratched to pieces by the cats and I planted some tomato plants on an old enamel bread bin that I found in my field. 

My garden is still very much a work in progress, although due to the awful weather last year, there hasn't really been very much progress in the last 12 months. I really want my garden to be a riot of colour and scent. I made a concious decision last year to only buy plants that are scented. I planted lavender and rosemary, delicately scented roses and lusciously scented sweet peas and my mission this year is to continue this theme but on a tiny budget. And by tiny, I mean almost nothing. I will be learning how to take cuttings  courtesy of Monty Don and Gardeners World (which, being the sad person I am, I recorded all of the episodes last year) and I already know how to take basal cuttings so I will be trying to take some of those this year and I will be growing pretty much everything else from seed so, I apologise, in advance, for all the boring pictures of seeds and plants that might pop up on my blog this year. 

Anyway, the book I found, Planted Junk by Adam Caplin, has some fabulous ideas to turn household junk into beautiful, shabby chic planters. All the following pictures are from the book. I think there are some fabulous ideas and I get the feeling some of these will be popping up in my garden.

I love the idea of using old enamel teapots and coffee pots and I really love the gorgeous colours.

These catering sized tins are perfect for planting flowers of herbs in. Cafes are more than happy to give away their large empty cans. 

It saves them recycling them because businesses have to pay to have their recycling taken away. 

I used the wooden crates that I got free from my local greengrocers to plant salad leaves and shallots last year. You can read the post HERE. 

And this is an ingenious way to utilise old breeze block type things (sorry, I have no idea what these things are actually called lol)

And lastly, another one, like the wellies from the last post, that appeals to the child in me :-)

Ingenious Thrifty Planters

I realise that spring is quite a way off, a good couple of months really before the weather starts to improve and I can get into my garden and start planting things but that doesn't stop the urge to get planting. I don't have a greenhouse, lack of funds means that it's not really an option at the moment but I do have several unoccupied windowsills that I can fill up with seed trays. The trouble is, I never seem to have enough room so, last night, in a moment of sheer frustration at my lack of outdoor greenhouse pottering space, I was trawling the internet to find some alternative ways of starting off, and indeed growing my seeds and plants. Some can be used both indoors and out and some are for outdoor use but they are all ingenious.

http://greenupgrader.com

This old shoe organisers can be used indoors in a sunny spot to start seeds off and then hung outdoors when the weather is warmer. It would be perfect for growing strawberries in or maybe a different herb in each compartment. Even cut and come again salad leaves, a single portion in each pocket. What a fabulous idea and one I am definitely going to be trying it this year. It has the added bonus of making it more difficult for the pesky slugs .... always a bonus in my book.

This next idea means that even if you have a tiny outdoor space you can grow some salad and maybe some strawberries, not to mention the possibility of covering the whole thing with beautiful flowers. You can get pallets from almost anywhere. Large shops often need to get rid of them and generally won't charge you or maybe charge you a pound or two. You could also paint the pallet with some outdoor paint before you plant it. Cuprinol do some fabulous colours, I painted one of my outdoor benches last year in a gorgeous pale pink colour called "Sweet Pea". There are lots of different outdoor paint companies out there now with some amazing colours so let your imagination run riot.

You can find instructions on how to make this fabulous planter here

I found this next one on the Grow Your Own magazine website. 

http://www.growfruitandveg.co.uk/grapevine/top-tips/bits-pieces-reduce-reuse-recycle-thread_30193.html

A friend of mine made something similar to this by simply threading the milk cartons onto a piece of wood, but putting them one facing front and one facing the back because otherwise it kind of tipped forward as it didn't have the wooden slot supports and she suspended it from the top of her polytunnel with some string tied around each end and tied over the pole that runs along the edge. She has filled it with seedlings and is saving milk carton to make some more.

This  next one I found uses lengths of old drainpipe. I love this idea of growing them in drainpipes along a wall it looks really fabulous. It is, again, something which would be ideal both for a small garden but also, for starting off thing like peas, which apparently don't like to have their roots disturbed when they are planted out. Once they are big enough to plant out, you can just simply slide the whole lot into a trench that you have dug without disturbing them. 

http://www.apartmenttherapy.com/gardening-without-a-garden-10-ideas-for-your-patio-or-balcony-renters-solutions-167221?image_id=3280546

And one final one that I simply couldn't resist.

http://www.globalcool.org/lifestyle/recycling-ideas-lightbulb-planters-cork chairs/attachment/599256_10151048592405185_279137666_n

Thrifty Thursday

Right, it's that time of the week again and time for my Thrifty Thursday Tip. Growing your own veg is immensely satisfying. It tastes fabulous and you know exactly what you're eating but, buying the containers to grow things in, even the little trays to plant the seeds in before planting them out can be really expensive so here is my thrifty tip. Fruit and veg crates, which shops are more than happy to give away for free, are perfect for growing veg. If you only have a small garden, container gardening is perfect. I have quite a large garden but things like lettuce and cut and come again salad leaves I like to keep off the floor so they don't get eaten by slugs (the slugs set up camp this year and munched their way through practically everything .... nasty little sods!). All I do is line them with plastic, any kind of thickish plastic will do, I used a llama food sack cut down the side and the bottom and stapled into the box and then I simply add a few drainage holes with a skewer, fill them with soil and away you go. You can even grow herbs and winter salad leaves on a window ledge during the winter months like this and you don't have to stop there. I also planted up an old wicker basket with herbs and an old enamel bread bin without a lid that I found in my field with a tomato plant. 

Another tip is that I save any plastic food trays from things like pre-packaged veg or the odd takeaway or ready meal that we might have and I use these as seed trays to start my veg plants off in. Just a few drainage holes in the bottom, made with a darning needle or a skewer and you're ready to fill with compost and sow your seeds. 

This year, I also planted potatoes in llama feed sacks. A couple of years ago I managed to get some potato growing sacks from my local garden centre but they were about £15 for three and this year I wanted to grow more potatoes but didn't want to spend any more money so I used some of the feed bags I had saved on the off-chance I would find something to do with them. I simply rolled down the bags and added some compost. Then I put four chitted potatoes in each bag and covered them with a bit more compost. As the potato plants grow, just unroll the bag a bit and add some more compost to almost cover the plants and keep going until there is no more bag left to unroll. When there is no more bag left just let them keep growing until they are ready to harvest. Simple and cheap. Any really strong bag will do. I used llama feed sacks but large plastic dog food sacks, the 15kg ones are fine or really thick rubble sacks. Just rinse them out and put some holes in the sides about two inches from the bottom and maybe one or two in the bottom of the sack for drainage and get planting.