h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Hello H

Great article I'm all for gardening on the cheap! Did you mention seed-saving? I think there's probably an entry in there, but I'll save it for a rainy day

I thought I'd let you have some of my cheapskate tips for gardening equipment for future weeks articles. Now, you've probably got all this already, but just in case you haven't... I use all of these all of the time in my garden and haven't bought a single thing.

Pots - yogurt pots, milk cartons, cream cartons - ie anything plastic, which you can pierce holes in the bottom for drainage. I use them for sowing my various beans into, as well as brassicas, curcubits etc.

Seed cells for individual seeds - egg cartons (and of course they decompose, so can be put into the ground as they are, seedling and all). Especially good for beetroot and chard.

Deep seed trays for things like leeks and sweet peas - the plastic box packaging from peaches, other fruit and mushrooms from supermarkets.

If you want individual seed pots for leeks, carrots or beetroot which can be placed undisturbed into the soil, I find folded newspaper is just perfect. Make a deep cup any way that comes naturally, fill it with compost and the seed, It'll work. Honest

Labels - cut-up fabric conditioner and washing-up liquid bottles. You really do *not* need neat labels with points and smart edges And don't bother with waterproof pens etc: just wet the end of a pencil and write with that. It's just as permenant during the year and will scrub off for next year.

Propogater hoods - those see-through bags you get vegs, fruit and cheese in at the supermarket. Just put the entire seed tray into the bag, or wrap it up in it.

Seed-tray watering can - a lemonade/tonic bottle with the top pierced by a red-hot needle several times.

Dibber - a bit of cane or wood.

Pea supports - prunings from all sorts of trees and shrubs: don't burn them/bin them until you've had a couple of years' use out of them.

Climbing bean supports - check out your local public gardens, botanic gardens or landowner, because somebody will be growing clumping bamboo, and there will be dead canes to be cleared every year. You'll be doing them a favour!

Pots for tomatoes, peppers, chillis, eggplant (aubergines) ie anything that needs hot roots - old buckets with holes in the bottom, empty paint containers, even split fish boxes (my peppers have grown in one for 4 years, with great results).

There's also a trick with dead wine bottles, taped together into a circle, covered with black plastic, then filled with water. Fill the middle of the circle of bottles with soil and you will have plants growing there that have warm roots all season, due to the effect of the water in the bottles. Warning: it's very difficult to empty it all out at the end of the year!

Bigger containers for outdoors - a pile of 2 or 3 tyres filled with compost and soil. Brilliant hot roots.

And of course, the ultimate freebie: manure from a local stables/farm which doesn't know what to do with it all

Phew! Hope that's helpful Of course, feel free to ignore it all as mad Scottish ramblings

Frenchbean

Great ideas. I may incorporate some of them in the Cranky Gardener if that's ok.

I got my salad garden planted.

H

Hi H

Feel free to use anything you like of my ramblings

Where do you grow your salads? I can't sow them outdoors yet - way too cold/wet - but will sow the first lettuce in a seed tray/flat in the greenhouse in a few days' time.

Isn't this a great time of year?


F/b

I have one of those round pyramid beds that they sell for strawberries. I have used it for different things over the years - never strawberries. Anyway, it had herbs in it for a while. I decided last year that it would be a perfect salad garden so I moved the herbs. It works great. The top 2 tiers are deep enough for carrots or any other root crops. And it holds much more than you would expect. I planted 6 different varieties of lettuce; 2 kinds of chard; spinach; radishes; carrots; and green onions.

It is warm enough here normally to set out early stuff in March if you're willing to cover things during cold snaps. I planted my snow peas also. I'll plant regular peas this weekend. Cabbage, cauliflower and broccoli can go out the 3rd week of March. I wait until the middle of April - beginning of May to set out tomatoes, peppers, etc. And I direct sow my beans, cucumbers and squash after May 1st. Sometimes I cheat and start the cucumber plants inside to get a jump on the growing season. Corn is planted after May 1st also.

Thanks for letting me borrow your ideas. I'll give credit where it's due. I think this week's column will be a good one.

H

You lucky things! We can get frosts into June , although I usually wing it and hope for the best. I use a lot of agri-fleece to wrap around all the tender crops until the start of June - runners, french beans, courgettes, marrows, squashes etc.

Cucumbers never get outside: they stay in the greenhouse, ditto tomatoes, capsicums, chillis, aubergines.

Just wait to 2005, when I'll be trying to grow everything the other end of the year, in Australia. Hopefully in a much warmer climate too


f/b

I'm sure you will find it strange at first gardening in the winter.

Our average last frost date is April 18 and first frost date in the fall is November 1. So we have a pretty decent growing season. If we use row covers, coldframes, etc., we can garden outdoors from the first of March through the first of December.

So do you plant directly into the soil in your greenhouse?

H

Our frosts can start at the end of September and end in June, as I said. So every extra day for growing is crucial, which is why the greenhouse is essential.

The advantage to being this far north is that our growing day in the summer is way longer than yours: it gets light at 3:30am and dark at 10:30pm. So the plants can grow most of the day.

I don't have beds in the greenhouse, so everything is in there in troughs, tubs and pots. That suits me fine. I'd love to have a deep bed for winter rhubarb, then summer tomatoes, but it's not crucial. One day!


F/b