Sunday, February 17, 2008

Newspaper pots

There is nothing nicer at this time of year than to be sat inside by a roaring log fire preparing for the forth coming growing season. I'm in full swing at the moment making newspaper pots for plug plants and seedlings.
An easy guide to making pots from newspaper.

1. Take a sheet of newspaper and cut in half, lay on surface and using the inside from a loo roll, roll the paper around it, with one end of the loo roll right up against the paper edge.2. At the other end push the paper into the loo roll, this is going to form the base of the pot.3. Pull the loo roll out of the pot.4. Turn the paper edge over to form a 1cm fold at the other end to make the top of the pot.5. The top of the pot with the 1 cm turned over lip.

6. To make the base of the pot get a cylindrical object (I use an aerosol spray) and push it inside the pot and bash down the turned in paper you did in step 2 to form the base.
The finished pot!

These pots are really useful, they replace the need to buy small plastic pots and can be used in exactly the same way as peat pots. Fill them with compost, sow seed into them, when the plant is ready to be planted outside you plant the entire pot as it will rot away naturally allowing the plant to grow without having had any transplant shock! I use these for all sorts, when I buy small plug plants (Busy Lizzies last year) I use these to grow them on before planting into the garden, I've also used them for Tomatoes, Peas, Runner beans, French beans etc. The added bonus is that they are very eco friendly as you are recycling old paper and not using Peat pots! Happy pot making!!!!!
(p.s. if your pots grow mould on the outside whilst your seedlings are developing don't panic, mine always do this with no harm to the seedling plant.)

Wilko's Cheap Onion sets

I find the lure of the seed catalogues very hard to avoid but this year I decided not to buy my onion sets from Marshalls or other seed company. I might regret the decision to buy them from Wilkinsons but price wise they could not be beaten! I went to a couple of cheap pound type shops and ended up buying a bag of white onions (stuttgarter) and red onions (red karmen) from Wilkinsons @ £1 each and some Sturon from the '99p store' this is a big saving on the seed companies who charge between £2 an nearly £5 depending on variety.
At the moment they're sat waiting for warmer weather before they go into the plot, our plot neighbour (Will) starts them off in little pots in the greenhouse so that they have a head start, might be worth a try.