Under The Cloche

So as I said before I like gadgets and here is the first one I got to use, though it may be a bit low tech to be considered a true  gadget.

In my first post you may have noticed that my seedling pots were made out of newspaper. These were made by a little pot maker I got given as a present, allowing you use old newspapers rather than buying those compost pots, so you then plant the whole thing when you pot on (how many times can you fit the word pot into one paragraph).

The pot maker consists of 2 parts as shown below, one bit for making the shape and one for forming the bottom.

Pot Maker

To make your pot you get a strip of paper wide enough to cover the shaper and fold right under the bottom, you wrap this loosely around and then fold it under the shaper.

Cut out your strip

Wrap round the shaper

Fold under bottom

Next you take your shaper, push it down onto the bottom piece, twist it round, and voila, a little seedling pot!

Push down and twist

The shaped bottom keeps it rigid

The finished pot

There you go, finally a use for that newspaper supplement you never read.

Okay this is where it starts- my growing so far. From left to right I have 3 pots of chocolate habaneros, 3 pots of garden peach tomatoes and 2 sunflowers (okay they aren’t veggies, but for that matter nor are toms).

Two paragraphs in and I already have a confession to make, I am due to take delivery of lots of lovely seedlings from a company called rocket garden. This was a birthday present from my wife, G, who I suspect didn’t want me covering all the windowsills with tomato plants and chitting potatoes. So it’s toms, peppers, aubergines, artichokes, and salad ahoy. I hope they are hardy breeds as it can be wet and cold up my way.

Question-  If I am taking delivery of plants, why am I growing things from seed? Well not only did I I get a pot maker and seeds from my SiL (Sister in Law), I am also in a sunflower growing competition against her and my FiL (you can work that one out yourselves). I am in the most southern of the contenders, so hopefully I have a head start. Mind you, even I am well north of the Watford gap, and a fair few degrees north of the sunflower fields of France.

So here’s the deal, I will update this with progress photos and bits of info on what I am using and why, lots of it will be guess work, lots of it will probably be wrong, but hopefully it will result in tasty food. I may post on other things as they take my fancy, we will wait and see. If you are growing yourself, feel free to to add your successes and failures.