On Sat, 3 Sep 2005 14:20:28 +0100, "pammyT" fenlandfowl
@talktalk.net wrote:


In theory
there is nothing you cannot grow in containers, including spuds.

I wouldn't have thought that possible .. ;-)

Much better than diging and earthing up. You get some old car tyres, place
one on the ground, fill with compost, place 5 spuds, as the tops grow put
another tyre on top, fill with compost etc until it is about 6 high. When
you come to harvest, you have spuds right from the top all the way down to
the bottom saving your back and saving space.

Kewl .. *and* you could race go-karts round yer vegeatables! ;-)
Funnily enough I was helping my gardener mate this arvo (new mp3
player gadget) and he offered another 'easy way' of growing spuds.
Clear the dirt (he tells me off when I call it that .. "earth you
mean" g) and plant some spuds in a row, 18" apart. Cover with black
polythene and held down along the edges cut slits when they want to
poke through. The spuds will grow on the surface and are easy to
harvest as / when you wan't some ;-)

I find french beans more rewarding as you get a huge crop
off each plant in a 6 inch pot.

Sri to be a pleb but what are they like? I generally like all beans
(broad, butter, kidney, baked g) whislt my missus does not (she'll
eat them but would prefer broccoli, cabbage etc).

I too am a bean-a-holic.

"Too" .. I'll re-phrase that .. "If I'm supposed to eat grean things
beans are what I choose" ;-)

I eat beans every day. Live them.

Don't they say 'you are what you eat' ducks "old bean" weg?

French beans
are crisp, smooth, never stringy and with a lovely flavour. Generally the
packets of whole frozen beans you can buy in the supermarket are french
beans. They do not need to be pollinated to crop either. Plant some and make
room in your freezer. They freeze verey well too.

Ok, sounds like worth a go then. I mentioned 'french beans' to my mate
and he isn a fan .. each to his / her own though eh?

Grow the green ones and the yellow ones,
sometimes called wax beans. At least in your own garden there will be no
weeding in pots on concrete.

Ah, I like the last bit ;-)

Me too cos I love growing my own food but am a lazy cow :0)

Not sure about that .. a 'lazy cow' would get Tesburies to deliver
them to her door ;-)

Better slug control on pots too. Strip some wire so you end up with the
copper inner, tie around the pot and twist to keep in place. Hey presto, no
slugs. They don't like to cross it cos it hurts their little sluggy tummies.

Electo / chemicall reaction then maybe?


If I was to do this again I might tidy up his garden further. His
'lawn' is now big clumps of wild grass amongst dead bald patches. He
would be happy for me to do anything with it as long as it wasn't
permenant (and especially if it made it tidyier). So, I was thinking
of making more growing space and removing the remaining grass,
replacing it with black membrane and bark or slate chippings?

That would be fine. Why don't you tidy up your own though and do the same?
:0)

sigh Because my 'garden' is more productive to me as a (small) slab
of contrete. I have never serviced motorbikes nor built a kitcar in
the middle of an alotment but I don't imagine it's as easy as a nice
flat / hard / slugfree surface! Also, concrete is about as
maintainence free as you can get! ;-)

There are some great books on container gardeing about if you are
interested.

Well, I'm interested in an 'in passing and handy if I can eat it'
kinda way but not as a main hobby. I can't see it having the same
excitement levels as flying a 5 sq m 'power kite' not as family
orientaed / exercise as cycle camping? ;-)

In theory any vegetable can be grown in a container and you
don't have to buy pretty pots. snip
Container gardening is great fun and a huge part of that fun is coming
across something you can use, for free, in skips and the like.

I like the idea of all that .. but for the moment my neighbours plot
is already there .. ;-)

I grow my
lollo rosso lettuce in old aluminium ice cream boxes as used in ice cream
vans. It looks very pretty, never goes to seed, and I simply pull off the
leaves I need and they regrow.

Everlasting lettuce! ;-)

Not once had a slug on it either so I think
they dislike aluminium too.

Well that's another handy discovery .. although I thought we were
supposed to be keeping food away from alloy cooking utensils these
days (wondered if any of the alloy chemicals could get into the plant
via the roots etc) .. ;-(

All the best and thanks again for the advice / ideas etc Pammy ;-)

T i m

p.s. Today my mate showed me his cheapish Hoselock auto-watering
system? Being a bloke I like gadgets and thought it might ensue my
beans (+ whatever I grow next) got their regular morning water?

Whatdyathink?