Saturday 20 April 2024

The Fish Boxes, Belfast Sink, Plastic Baths, Barrels, Washing Machine Drum Allotment.

 I often say on here that you do not need to have a garden or allotment to grow your own vegetables and perennials.

All you need is something to grow them in.  Here's some of the containers I have acquired over the years living in West Cork:


Plastic Baths.  I bought them second hand and drilled drainage holes in them and filled them with fym and topsoil.


The round metal drum is from our old washing machine.  There are fish boxes I found.  Some washed up on the beaches.  You can also see barrels, plant pots and an old Belfast Sink.  Next to the pallets is a shower screen which I once made a cold frame with.

My allotments apprenticeship taught me to be resourceful and repurpose what ever I can find to grow my veggies.

Vegetable gardening need not mean you have to spend much money.  All you need is to have a look around and collect and utilise what you have got.

This is my 100th blog post of 2024.  Not bad for the middle of April.

8 comments:

  1. Congratulations on reaching 100 post, I had an old plastic lean too greenhouse, when I got my glass one, I kept the old walls and doors, they make handy covers, the door fits my raised bed perfectly. Nothing is junk here, everything has a second chance at being useful.

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  2. Thanks Marlene. It's good to be resourceful and repurpose what ever you can find.

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  3. You are a good advert for resourcefulness, recycling and repurposing Dave. These are all habits that millions of other people should try to take up - instead of vapes, fags, telly and ketamine.

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  4. Thanks YP. It's good to have a hobby that you can eat what you grow.

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  5. "I often say on here that you do not need to have a garden or allotment to grow your own vegetables and perennials. All you need is something to grow them in."
    But without a garden or allotment where do you put these containers? When one has a miniscule front porch and no spare room at all inside the home? When one lives in subsidised public housing and is forbidden to rip up the lawn, and cars park on it anyway and neighbours walk across like it was their own? When the back yard is concrete and gets no sun so even the washing lines are largely useless except on really hot days and that's where all the rubbish bins are kept too?
    I am jealous of the amount of space and options you have.

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  6. Hi River. It saddens me when I read of people having no growing space and the nearly 175000 people on allotment waiting lists in the UK. I am sure there are lots of residential gardens that could be used to grow vegetables. I have grown potatoes in a plant pot upstairs on the window sill of a council flat. I am sure some one would rent you a patch of land.

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  7. K uses old plastic wine barrels cut on half. We have a washing machine drum to hold fire wood

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  8. I would love to meet K Linda. He sounds very resourceful.

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