10 February 2006

A watched pot…

There’s been a fair bit of newspaper recycling creativity going on in the allotment blog community. WiZeR, Mildew, Plot Holes and Anything But Sprouts have all been at it. And tonight, so have I.

I was given one of these as a Christmas present in 2004 (I really don’t remember it being quite so expensive, but perhaps I’m wrong) and last year I found it very useful. You don’t have to fork out, however, as there is always the origami method (no additional equipment required) or the roll around a jar method method.

This particular pot maker is quite big, so it’s not really very good for seedlings that don’t grow very fast. I did start my tomatoes in them last year, but by the time I came to pot them on, the pots were well and truly breaking down. This year the toms are starting in some small plastic pots I have, before I put them into paper pots and then later potting the whole thing on. They are great for beans and courgettes and squashes. Sweetcorn, well possibly, but I’m going to use loo roll tubes for them.

The other thing to bear in mind if you use these is that it is very important to make sure the paper of the pot is wet through and that you have torn the base before putting the whole thing in the ground. Your sturdy, strapping, healthy seedlings might otherwise succumb to constricted roots – and we all know how painful it can be to wear shoes that pinch, don’t we?

The batch I made tonight are going to have some reserve broad beans sown in them – in case I end up with lots of gaps in the broad bean bed thanks to the terrifying giant mice. They might scare the pants off me, but they will not deprive me of my God-given right to fart like a trooper throughout the summer months. No sir!

Filed under: Blue Peter corner — Clare @ 10:26 pm