Pots, Troughs and Planters in general

Tonight it's goosegog pie. The potatoes will be ready soon. Before too long the courgettes will be cropping, the strawberries are in flower and the blackcurrants won't be far behind, although the redcurrants actually look as though they're a bit ahead. "Wrong category", you're thinking. Nope, sorry; you see they're all grown in containers, and not particularly elegant ones at that. They all came free. Let me explain. A few years ago I was in the village greengrocer's. He also does a nice line in fresh flowers, and was bemoaning the fact that the flowers came in some rather smart black tubs, about 18 inches high, ...  Read the complete review

Don`t throw away surplus wood, recycle it into something special. Here`s how you can turn old fencing posts into a sturdy planter. 1: Old posts normally have a few nails in them, so to begin with de-nail the posts, and clean off any dirt with a wire brush. 2: Decide on how big you want your planter to be, Length*Width*Height.(Remember most posts are 3 inches square). Subtract the width of your post from your overall dimension. i.e. A planter 2 foot square with posts 3 inches square, you would cut your posts to 1 foot, 9 inches. Mark out the wood and cut to length. 3: For a rustic planter you would leave the posts as they are, if however ...  Read the complete review

As you can guess from the fact that I don't know the correct name for the plastic herb-growing thing, I don't know much about gardening. My parents have a garden at home but its always the same and no contribution from me towards the growing of things has ever been required. However, I recently decided to grow herbs. Several straggly pots on my kitchen windowsill was not enough so I went to a garden centre to buy an appropriate receptacle (ie plastic herb growing thingy!) The chap there was very helpful and told me not to buy the large cheap plastic pot that I had my eye on but to opt for a specialist slug-proof, reinforced (why reinforced? what sort of ...  Read the complete review

I like my pots, troughs & planters in the garden as much as the next person but I have to say my husband's obsessed with pots. Every time he used to go to B&Q, the garden centre or Makro he'd come back with at least one more each time. We have a medium-sized garden with good borders with plenty of room for plants but these look colourless most of the year because everything's in blooming pots! I plant orchids every year in pots as they sometimes have to be moved around & seedlings in troughs - everything else goes in the garden. However my husband thinks everything from roses, carnations to cabbages & carrots has to potted ...  Read the complete review

I know I've mentioned it before but I do have quite a large garden and although I have a lot of flower beds as well there are areas around that benefit from a few pots of mixed bedding plants for some extra summer colour. I have a few plastic pots planted up but I was in need of some more until I had a bright idea the other day. In my shed there are a number of large plastic paint tubs the ones you buy huge amounts of white emulsion in from B&Q and the like.We never throw them away as they can be used for lots of things once washed out.Also in the shed was half a tin of dulux step and tile paint, priced £2.85. So off came the lids and ...  Read the complete review