A flurry of activity when my mail order plants and seeds are delivered.
Postal plants and recycled pots
I had a very exciting delivery this morning from www.organicplants.co.uk including an oriental mini pack and some radish seeds. These new arrivals will hopefully thrive in the new pots I have acquired. These particular pots were gifted to me but I have noticed that pots frequently become available on www.freecycle.org for nothing which is ideal if you, like me, are on a low budget and don’t mind a slightly rustic look to your container collection. I have also acquired an old wine case which looks great and should be fine as a plant container.
I have planted the whole of the oriental mini pack in one large pot and watered them in. I think they might be a little too close together so if they don’t grow as well as I think they should then I will pull a few out to give the rest some more space. As a trial, I have decided to use some Carbon Gold compost. It is peat-free and enriched with “Bio-char”. I have planted my plug plants in their all-purpose compost and my seeds in their seed compost and I will let you know what I think about it in a few weeks.
I sowed some radish seeds in a terracotta pot (1cm deep) and some French beans in my wine case (5cm deep). For the radishes I just removed 1cm of soil from my pot and scattered the seeds on the compost’s surface before returning the soil and watering in. For the beans I poked a 5cm hole with a pencil, dropped in the seed, covered, gave the box a good tap to remove air gaps and gave them a generous drink of water. I also planted some parsley and coriander in some small pots so they will be nice and established before the frosts start to hit and I can bring them inside so I will have some of the less hardy herbs in the winter too.
My gardening activities today were supervised by this little guy http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vTVEvIMD8jY&feature=youtu.be (an incredibly tame robin who hopped around while I was planting, less than a meter away from me at times). Me and my muddy knees can’t wait for my seeds to start coming up. Happy gardening, Ele.
Above: The box of plants that arrived from organicplants.co.uk
Below: All of my new containers
It’s great to label your pots so you don’t forget what’s in them. I make mine out of cut up margarine tub lids.
