Planters

Starting with the easy one - this used to be a TV unit a while ago, the TV became a flat screen and moved upstairs so we didn't need it any more and with a few extra nails it has become a nice deep Runner Bean planter (or will next month when the runner beans are garden-ready).

The real achievement of the day is my pallet-planters.  I'm really pleased how they've worked out.  They are about twice the depth of a grow bag so should make my tomatoes very happy (when they finally get big and strong enough to go outside).  The second one will definitely play home to some courgettes and/or patty pan squashes when the weather gets nicer and for the time being will probably make Rob very happy with some quick radishes (which only need a month or so and can be yanked out of the way by the time the squashes are ready to go in)

Unexpectedly the biggest challenge with these planters was filling them - between the planters and the TV unit they've taken 6 of B&Q's biggest (cheapest) 125L bags of compost; poor little car had to make two trips to the shop to get it all and I definitely deserve a nice hot shower to recover from lugging it all around! So final cost of planters = woodwork £NIL, nails £5, liner £10 and compost £42; pretty reasonable I think.

I also treated each planter to a generous helping of blood, fish & bone as I suspect that b&q's cheapest doesn't come with much in the way of nutrients for my plants!  Still, this really was a case of needing quantity not quality so I think it should work out fine.

I had a slight lettuce fail... apparently my lovely grow bag full of seedlings looks an awful lot like a luxury toilet to the neighbourhood cats.  When I was down at B&Q buying compost for my mega-planters I saw some little trays of lettuce seedlings... £1.48 for 24 plants - I'm hoping that as they are a bit bigger the cats will realise that this is not something laid on for their benefit and leave them be... we shall see ;p 

Finally - a close up shot of my brand new Morrello Cherry Tree - this little beauty was my birthday pressie from my godparents (by way of a very nice cheque ;p) and is promising to look absolutely gorgeous when all the buds come into bloom... in all honesty it's pretty stunning already with just a couple out.  It's living in a pot at the moment and the chap at the garden centre said that as long as I keep buying it a new, bigger one, each year it should be happy enough although one day I shall hopefully have a nice big flower bed/lawn for it to live in.