Tomatoes and the generosity of strangers

Most of you reading will have heard of freecycle, a scheme where you offer unwanted 'stuff ' for others to pick up if they need some. Over the past few weeks we've freecycled lots of unwanted clutter from the house.

Yesterday, we collected some unwanted plants from a local grower and I was able to double the varieties of tomatoes we are growing this year!!

So now as well as the 'Gardeners Delight' we bought as young plants and the 'Alicante' Little Jonesey grew from seeds we will have 'Garden Pearl' in our hanging baskets, 'Beefsteak' in the greenhouse and 'Moneymaker' in tubs in the sunny spots in the garden!!

Hopefully the harvest will be vast and I'll be able to pop a jar of homemade chutney back in to the lady that kindly gave me the plants.

How to recycle your way bigger better plants - Home made suntrap / greenhouse

Sweetcorn, Sunflowers, Strawberries and Beans growing in the Suntrap

We don't have a traditional greenhouse and our conservatory is a cold northfacing one so after our seeds have germinated we transfer them to our homemade (recycled) suntrap to give them a little bit of extra warmth to help them on their way!!

As you can see they are recycled UHT milk cartons, the shiny insides make a great reflective surface to focus the heat onto the plants. Simply wash out your cartons thoroughly the cut open and tape together to make mini suntraps.

I grew two lots of sweetcorn side by side but put a suntrap behind one. Of course there could have been several variables but the one in the suntrap grew about a third bigger so far!!!

Give it a go, you've nothing to lose!!

What clever growing tips do you have?

Tutorial: A Frugal way to Plant Carrots

Little Miss Jones loves carrots, she'd eat them all day long, so there is no way I would leave them off my planting list but for really good carrots you need well prepared borders or nice deep pots. My square foot bed isn't really deep enough and I don't have any big pots left at the moment!

Thinking cap on, I've come up with a way that will give lots of nice straight growing length, be free draining and hopefully fox those carrot root flies too!

My Thrifty Carrot Planter

you will need

Sharp Scissors

2 ltr (lemonade type) plastic bottle

Compost

Dibber / Finger

Carrot Seeds

Method

Cut the top bit off your plastic bottle ( see pic ) this should include the shoulders and 3/4" of the sides.

Invert the top and push it all the way to the bottom of the bottle. This should allow excess water to drain off safely.

Pour a handful of small gravel into the bottom of the bottle then fill up with compost.

Using your dibber / finger make 4 holes in the compost 2cm deep. Leave enough room between hols and sides to allow 2 to grow to maturity and 2 to be harvested as baby carrots.

Plant seeds and cover with compost. Water.

The perfect FREE propagator for sprouting seeds???

Have you worked out what it is yet? I'm a bit of a sucker for Tescos sushi and about 3 or 4 times a year I give in and buy some if I'm out and without lunch. This time as I sat in the car munching on my californian rolls I looked at the box and it screamed propagator to me!!!

The box was cleaned thoroughly and I folded a kitchen roll up into a 9th and popped it inside - perfect fit. I moistened the kitchen roll and sprinckled it with red cabbage sprouting seeds - and a few mustard seeds I had spilt from the packet and accidently mixed, at the weekend!!

Voila, perfect little propogator to get them started!

What have you managed to see in a new light and reuse????