DIY planter from recycled materials

New home for my japanese anemones

Nick and I built this planter last weekend. Actually, Nick did the building and I did the planting. The wood was a left-over panel from the shed (it was homemade and already here when we bought the house), and we discovered it back in spring when I painted the shed. We cut in in 4 parts and assembled what you see, with weed matting for the bottom. I was going to paint it first, but I now I quite like the shabby appearance, and it reminds me of where the panel comes from!

All of the plants I had already, except for the trailing one with the white flowers, which is called Bacopa. One the left are some irises that were on the ground when we bought the house, and which I have kept in pots until now (I had to lift them when we built the vegetable raised beds), and behind the bacopa is a japanese anemome that I bought three years ago and was surviving (but not thriving much) in a very small trough. All three plants have already flowered in shady conditions, which is perfect for where I have put this planter - in the corridor between our house and the neighbours'. They also flower in different seasons (irises in late winter, bacopa in summer and anemones in autumn) so there will always be something interesting going on. All in all it only cost me £8: £5 for the compost and £3 for the bacopa :-)

Esta jardinera la construimos Nick y yo el fin de semana pasado. Es decir, Nick la construyo y yo la plante. La madera era un panel sobrante de cuando los duenos anteriores construyeron la caseta, y que descubrimos en primavera cuando pinte la caseta. Las plantas, excepto la rastrea de las flores blancas (le llaman bacopa) ya las tenia: a la izquierda hay unos iris que ya estaban en el jardin cuando compramos la casa, y que tuve que pasar a macetas cuando construimos la huerta; y detras de la bacopa hay una planta que en ingles le llaman "anemona japonesa", japanese anemone, pero no se el nombre en espanol. Pinchad aqui para ver una foto de las flores. Estas tres plantas ya han dado flores en condiciones de poca luz, lo cual es perfecto para el sitio donde he puesto la jardinera: entre nuestra casa y la del vecino. Los iris florecen a finales de invierno, la bacopa en verano y las anemonas en otono, asi siempre hay algo interesante que ver! En total los materiales solo me costaron 8 libras: 5 del compost y 3 de la bacopa, todo lo demas fue reciclado!

My seat outside

My seat in the garden

This is where I have my breakfast every morning - and sometimes, like today, a beer in the evening. The thought of breakfast outside is what really gets me out of bed! I particularly love this time of the year, when there's lots of flowers and the lavender smells gorgeous. It's always full of bees, especially in the morning (my garden faces East and gets the sunlight early). And the photo below is what I'm looking at while I'm seating...

Aqui es donde me siento todas las mananas a tomar el desayuno. Y a veces por las tardes al  volver del trabajo, como hoy, me siento con una cerveza y un libro, o el ordenador. Por las mananas la idea de desayuno (con mi cola-cao) y sentarme al lado de la lavanda es lo que consigue sacarme de la cama! La lavanda huele de maravila, y esta siempre llena de abejas - sobre todo si es un dia soleado. Mi jardin da al este y el sol le da temprano, perfecto para mis desayunos! La foto de abajo es la  vista desde el asiento:

View from my seat

Crop of Purplee Teepee french beans

Purple Teepee beans

I picked these beans this morning. They are a variety of french bean called Purple Teepee, and as you can see they are mostly purple. These come from a couple of plants that have been growing in part shade, and the parts of the beans that were more in shade are more green and less purple. To get really dark purple beans I think you need to grow them in full sun (that's one for the allotment next year). But I'm quite pleased with this crop, it will make a meal for two and I didn't do much for the plants. I planted the seed back in spring, then planted it outside and let the plants get on with life. Lately they were attacked by slugs and snails that ate all of the leaves, but luckily left the pods. I had three plants, and one of them still has a few leaves and flowers, so I left it to see if I get a smaller crop next month, but the other two plants were completely gone and I had to pull them up. Still, I like this bean and I think I'll grow it again next year. It's a low-growing bean (it doesn't climb) and the flowers are purple too, very pretty!

Estas judias moradas son una variedad que se llama Purple Teepee, y como veis son moradas. Las plantas estaban en semisombra, y a las que les dio mas sombra estan mas verdes que moradas. Para conseguir el color morado oscuro tienen que crecer en mas sol, el ano que viene las plantare en la huerta municipal. Es el segundo ano que planto estas judias y la verdad es que me encantan. La planta es de mata baja y las flores son tambien entre rosa y violeta, muy bonitas. Son faciles de cultivar, yo sembre la semilla en primavera, las plante en el jardin en mayo y no las he vuelto a tocar hasta ahora. Los caracoles las atacaron este ultimo mes y se comieron casi todas las hojas, pero por suerte las judias no. Una de las plantas (tenia tres) aun tiene unas pocas hojas y un par de flores, asi que la he dejado a ver si me dan una segunda mini cosecha el mes que viene, pero las otras dos plantas las he tenido que levantar - no quedaba mas que los tallos pelados!

Cucumber success!

Cucumber cropping happily in a big pot

This is what we're having with dinner tonight. It is also the first ever cucumber I managed to grow! After all the disasters this spring, including seedlings collapsing, plants eaten by slugs, and one completely squashed in a too-energetic car-breaking manoeuvre, I finally managed to grow two cucumber plants together in a big pot, one of them has produced this jewel :-). It has got little embryo fruits, I hope now that I have removed the ripe fruit the plant will be tricked into maturing new fruits. Will see!

Este pepino maravilloso lo coseche esta semana. Es la primera vez que una planta de pepino me da fruta, y la verdad es que el sabor es mucho mejor que los de la tienda! Me costo conseguir la planta: tras los desastres de las semillas que germinaron y colapsaron (en febrero y marzo), y la planta que me dio Veronica y que sufrio un accidente de trafico (al frenar el coche alla fue la planta de cabeza, y no sobrevivio), y una que compre y que se comieron los caracoles, por fin! Esta planta tamien es comprada, y aparte de este pepino maduro tiene otras mini-frutas formadas donde hubo flor. Espero que al quitarle la fruta madura la planta reaccione madurando otras...

Borage flowers in ice cubes

Borage flowers

I sowed my borage in early spring, and even in my shady garden it has done well and is now covered in pretty blue flowers. I have heard that you could eat the young leaves - apparently they have a cucumber taste! - but I didn't have the heart to strip my young plants out of leaves. However, I also read somewhere that the flowers are edible, and because of the cucumberish taste you can add them to your summer pimms for a touch of colour and flavour. So, to combine flower preservation with use in drinks, I have made these ice cubes, they look amazing! I can't wait to see them in a glass of pimm's :-)

Sembre semilla de borago officinalis a principio de primavera, y se ha dado bien incluso en mi jardin sombrio. Estan llenos de estas flores azules tan bonitas. He leido que las hojas tiernas se pueden comer, tiene un sabor que recuerda al pepino, pero a mi me dio pena pelar las plantitas y las deje crecer. Las flores tambien son comestibles, asi que he decidido conservar unas cuantas... en cubitos de hielo, para poner en cocteles veraniegos! 

Harvest of salad

I'm harvesting salad leaves almost every day at the moment. Most of these in the photo come from the allotment: there are several plants there and with the good soil and sun they're growing strongly, even without watering! The ones in the garden get more water but less sun, and they're not so big. I particularly like the red one that has leaves shaped like and oak's. Next year I want some seed of that one!

Las lechugas me estan dando hojas para cosechar casi todos Los dias. Estas de la foto son de la huerta comunal. Las de la huerta tienen mas sol, y a pesar de que solo se riegan con la lluvia estan mas grandes que las del jardin de casa. Y como solo corto unas picas hojas de cads planta cada vez, cuando vuelvo han echado hojas nuevas, es rapidisimo! Mis hojas favoritas son unas rojas con forma de hoja de roble. El año que viene voy a comprar semilla de esta!

First raspberries

Raspberries on last summer's cane

These were the first raspberries from my own plants, before I ate them! I planted the canes last summer, and they're supposed to be autumn fruiting. But these were early fruits on last summer's canes, which I didn't prune to the ground when I planted. I think the trick is in the pruning: if you leave the canes standing, they fruit early (summer, about now); but if you cut them down, you get new canes that grow during spring and summer and fruit in the autumn. So what you do is you prune only half of your canes every autumn, to get crops in summer and autumn next year - well, at least that's the theory I've read. My plants have new canes growing, let's hope I get more raspberries in the autumn because they are delicious!

Estas frambuesas duraron en la planta lo justo para sacar la foto. Las plante el ano pasado a principios de otono, y estas frutas han salido de las canas que plante. Tambien han salido ramas nuevas, y en teoria en otono deberia de tener una segunda cosecha de frambuesas en las ramas nuevas. A ver si la teoria funciona! Este otono podare las ramas del ano pasado y dejare las que han crecido este, y asi el proximo verano tendre frambuesas en verano y en otono otra vez.