Seriously thoughtful What's out in your garden now ....

[bjones6416]

Originally Posted by amward

The possum's just gone on his nightly attack on the wisteria and there's a bandicoot under the hibiscus. The garden looks a bit sad as autumn is here and we don't get lots of colour.

I knew about your possums there (NOT like the ones here!) from another thread, but I had to google "bandicoot!"

[kennyc]

bandicoots is cool!

especially Crash Bandicoot.

[Ea]

Pic 1: Angelica - it's a small one, but I thought that might give it a better chance to survive being transplanted.

Pic 2 (from left to right):
First bag: dill, mint, tarragon, chervil, parsley and spearmint hiding behind it.
The dill is a supermarket plant, and I just put it in there as an experiment to see if it would survive. Both mints are small right now, but I expect they'll try to take over the bag in a few more weeks.

Second bag: Lemon (or mint?*) thyme (it's hiding), sage, thyme and rosemary.

* A friend of mine is convinced it's mint thyme, but I'm not sure. It's so small because it suffered a drought in my windowsill a month ago

The bags are IKEA bags that I've altered slightly. I got the idea after reading about these plant containers (http://www.bacsac.fr/) - horribly expensive. The IKEA bags are free except for about an hours product development, and then one hour's work per bag.

I've probably too many plants per bag, so I might have to go to IKEA again But right now it's still somewhat cool and only barely no night frosts, so I expect the bags will be enough at least until well into June.

[FlorenceArt]

Very nice Ea, the Ikea bags are a very cool idea!

[Ea]

Originally Posted by FlorenceArt

Very nice Ea, the Ikea bags are a very cool idea!

Thanks - I think so too!

[bjones6416]

Originally Posted by Ea

Pic 1: Angelica - it's a small one, but I thought that might give it a better chance to survive being transplanted.

Pic 2 (from left to right):
First bag: dill, mint, tarragon, chervil, parsley and spearmint hiding behind it.
The dill is a supermarket plant, and I just put it in there as an experiment to see if it would survive. Both mints are small right now, but I expect they'll try to take over the bag in a few more weeks.

Second bag: Lemon (or mint?*) thyme (it's hiding), sage, thyme and rosemary.

* A friend of mine is convinced it's mint thyme, but I'm not sure. It's so small because it suffered a drought in my windowsill a month ago

The bags are IKEA bags that I've altered slightly. I got the idea after reading about these plant containers (http://www.bacsac.fr/) - horribly expensive. The IKEA bags are free except for about an hours product development, and then one hour's work per bag.

I've probably too many plants per bag, so I might have to go to IKEA again But right now it's still somewhat cool and only barely no night frosts, so I expect the bags will be enough at least until well into June.

I love this, and I have about 5 or 6 ikea bags already! I'd love to plant a couple of tomato plants this way -- do you think that would work? I couldn't tell from the website exactly what kind of modifications I would need to make to the ikea bag -- could you tell me what you did? Genius!

[GeoffC]

add soil

[Anke Wehner]

Adding grommeted holes at the bottom for drainage, maybe? Those are a great idea, anyway.

We've got Forget-me-nots and lilies of the valley at the moment.

EDIT: fixed the link

[GeoffC]

we have lily of the valley leaves, but the flowers are not, yet, out - but the forget-me-nots are - also blue violets....

we also have water connected outside after a wee leak

[beppe]

Wild Fennel.
It is a perennial. I have it since several years. In this place at least since 3.
The stems give a fantastic aroma to pork roasts. The leafs and the barb (you can see one) are the basic ingredients in the culinary masterpiece from sicily that goes with name of pasta con le sarde (sardines), with pine nuts and raisins and plenty of the fennel. Instead of parmesan, they use bread crumbs fried in fat.
(the link is to Italian wikipedia, sorry, no English, but there is the recipe and one can googleize it).

[Ea]

Originally Posted by bjones6416

I love this, and I have about 5 or 6 ikea bags already! I'd love to plant a couple of tomato plants this way -- do you think that would work? I couldn't tell from the website exactly what kind of modifications I would need to make to the ikea bag -- could you tell me what you did? Genius!

Thank you I think it would work very well for tomatoes.

I've attached a photo of an empty bag, so it's easier to see what I've altered. Basically I did:
1. narrowed it a bit by taking it in - sewing a "pleat" from one end to the other. Not strictly necessary, just thought they'd be too large if I didn't.
2. sewed seams at the corners to give the shape a bit of definition (purely decoration, but simple to do)
3. cut off the long handles and used the bands to create a "wall" in the middle, to keep it together, by attaching the bands into decorative seams down the middle of the long sides. Else the bag would have ended up looking more like a wide tub and been less stable.

The bag with angelica has a different shape, taller and narrower. I took it in a bit on the wide side, to create more of a deep tub shape. It also has no bands crossing in the middle - not necessary.

A tip: I used very long stiches as the stitching also perforates the material and small stitches would have weakened the material at the seams considerably. And used polyester thread of course (less chance of rot).

What I would do differently next time: put the top band at the level of the soil. I'm not sure why I didn't fill them up more, but the amount of soil seemed appropriate - in all three together there's 180 litre of soil.

Originally Posted by Anke Wehner

Adding grommeted holes at the bottom for drainage, maybe? Those are a great idea, anyway.

The bags are made from woven plastic, so it drains fine without holes.

[covingtoncat73]

Gardenias, among other things. I should take a picture.

[cmargm]

There is still some snow! It was added to by more snow yesterday! The rhubarb is trying to poke up through this mess.

[The Terminator]

Weeds......What else can grow in a garden?

[bjones6416]

Originally Posted by Ea

Thank you I think it would work very well for tomatoes.

I've attached a photo of an empty bag, so it's easier to see what I've altered. Basically I did:
1. narrowed it a bit by taking it in - sewing a "pleat" from one end to the other. Not strictly necessary, just thought they'd be too large if I didn't.
2. sewed seams at the corners to give the shape a bit of definition (purely decoration, but simple to do)
3. cut off the long handles and used the bands to create a "wall" in the middle, to keep it together, by attaching the bands into decorative seams down the middle of the long sides. Else the bag would have ended up looking more like a wide tub and been less stable.

The bag with angelica has a different shape, taller and narrower. I took it in a bit on the wide side, to create more of a deep tub shape. It also has no bands crossing in the middle - not necessary.

A tip: I used very long stiches as the stitching also perforates the material and small stitches would have weakened the material at the seams considerably. And used polyester thread of course (less chance of rot).

What I would do differently next time: put the top band at the level of the soil. I'm not sure why I didn't fill them up more, but the amount of soil seemed appropriate - in all three together there's 180 litre of soil.


The bags are made from woven plastic, so it drains fine without holes.

Oh, thank you so much! I think I might try the single bag like you have the anjelica in (and square it up a bit as you did).