Sunday 5 May 2013

Pottering in the garden

Now it's not as if I haven't got enough flower pots lying about to use for this season's planting plans but a bout of kitchen de-cluttering had left a little stack of kitchen pots and pans to be got rid of and I started seeing another use for them. This is far from the first time I have seen odd items  in terms of garden uses. (Remember this and this?)


Can't you just see them as planters? The old wok and the base of the steamer set (sadly the victim of a boil dry incident which totally wrecked the enamel on the inside) would need drainage holes. HeWhoOwnsTheTools said I should use a special metal drill bit and the electric drill.


Please tell me you will wear safety goggles if you are going to do this. The thought of all those little metal filings being flung about, possibly in the direction of  something as precious and vulnerable as your eyes just doesn't bear thinking about.
With the holes in, I then filled the wok with seed compost, gave it a good drenching with water and let it drain before scattering on the seeds.


A light covering of vermiculite, misted over with a spray bottle to stop it blowing around and I was ready to sit back and wait for my salad leaves to grow.


I find this way of planting a scattering of small seeds works well and stops the seeds from getting washed around.

The top two tiers of the steamer already had a lot of holes.


So many, in fact, that I put in three circles of newspaper to stop the compost being washed out.


I quite like these seed mats, in this case, for basil. A lazy way of ensuring the seeds are well-spaced.


I love basil as a herb. Like parsley and chives, it is something that I never seem to have too much of. However I can never plant up a pot or even buy a pot of basil from the supermarket without being reminded of William Holman Hunt's picture of  Isabella and the Pot of Basil and the rather grisly story behind it in Keats's poem.
The salad leaves are doing well and haven't let the low temperatures over night put them off germinating.


The copper band is that stuff which slugs and snails are supposed not to be able to cross. So far so good - ours are not the only mouths expecting to feed from our garden.
And what has gone into the steamer pot? Why, calendula - otherwise know as pot marigolds, of course.









4 comments:

  1. What fabulous use for your old pans!

    Pot marigolds give great dye colours, did you know?!

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    1. I have never tried using them for dyeing. I have thought that the petals would work well for hapa-zome dyeing, the whole flowers being too thick and too complex for that technique. Makes them a very useful plant, doesn't it? Cut flower, edible petals and dye plant.

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  2. And don't forget they're what Calendula ointment is made from!

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  3. Yes - good for healing scars, I believe. I wonder whether the name 'pot marigold' refers to the dye pot rather than the cooking pot.

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