How to make your own stacking planters.

Hello!

I will not be truly happy until I have either a 'Garden Tower' or a 'Greenstalk' planter, or something very similar.  If you're not familiar, these are stacking vertical garden planters, that are sadly out of my budget and/or only sold in America.

But, never fear, I've come up with my own DIY versions.  Not quite as tall or exciting as the pre made ones, but I'm pretty pleased with what I've managed to come up with, with pots I had lying round the garden.

Example number one:

Three terracotta pots of different sizes stacked together. I've put a snapped off bit of bamboo cane through all of the holes in the bottoms of the pots, to help keep it steady.  Burying the bottom of each pot a little way down in the bigger one underneath will also help keep everything safe and secure.

I planted some strawberry runners in my DIY vertical terracotta planter, and they're really happy in there.

Example number two:

Round plastic pots. Stacked together in the same way as the terracotta ones.  I didn't put a stick through these, but they are all slightly buried in each other to keep them secure.  The big black pots are florists buckets, they sell them off sometimes in Morrisons £1 for 10. The smaller pots I've reused from other plants.

These have potatoes in the largest pot, some borlotto beans in the middle pot (well, there would have been borlotto beans if some slugs hadn't eaten them all!🤦‍♀️) And chard in the top pot. 

I grow potatoes in the big round pots anyway, so by adding more pots to this set up I get more vertical gardening space for practically no cost or effort!

Example number three:

Square pots. I had two of these square pots already, then I realized you could stack them on top of each other and make vertical potato planters.  The pots are £3 each from B&M, and the label says they're made from recycled and recyclable plastic.

I based this design off a 'Paul potato planter', which is from a German company and starts at  about £40 for the plastic version, as goes up into the hundreds for the stainless steel version. No shade for those prices, it's just not possible for me.  Thank goodness for B&M!

This is literally just 2 square planters carefully stacked diagonally.  The potato in the bottom pot has sent it's leaves through the gaps (just like I hoped it would 😊).  For these particular pots I could only stack 2 together, 3 was a bit heavy and wobbly.

You could probably do this with all sorts of square and rectangular pots, so if you have some give it a go and see if you can make them into a vertical garden. 

Overall I'm pretty pleased with my cobbled together vertical planters.  It always pleases me to grow as much as I can in a small place, and you can never have too many potatoes!

Do you have any DIY stacking planters in your garden?

See you soon, love, Susie Moon xx

My homegrown harvest, July 2019.

July's been a month of raspberries.  Sooo many raspberries.  I only have autumn fruiting raspberries, but that doesn't seem to be stopping them fruiting now!

I've had loads of greens too, which I've been shredding, wilting in boiled water, then squeezing into little handfuls to freeze, so I can use it later in the year.

We had our first, one and only cherry, it was delicious, the variety is 'sweetheart'.

My 'discovery' apples started falling off the tree so I picked them all, which was a mistake as they're SUPER sour and nowhere near ripe!  They're on the windowsill, I hope they'll soak up some sun and get a bit sweeter. 

I didn't manage to grow any carrots last year so yey for carrots this year!  The variety is 'berlicum' and they're really nice. 

I've also had loads of strawberries, purple snap peas, potatoes, beets, some baby onions and a little baby garlic.

What have you been growing this month?

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My homegrown harvest, June 2019.

Things are finally growing in my garden!  These are the first potatoes of the year - it was a mix of varieties.  The potatoes aren't quite ready so I just rummaged around in the soil and pulled out some big feeling potatoes without disturbing the plants too much! 

I've had my first raspberries.  I'm slightly perturbed that these are my 'autumn bliss' raspberries and they're all coming now!  Is this climate change?  Did I prune them crazy wrong last year?  What will I eat in autumn!?

The first strawberries have arrived too, I only eat home grown strawbs so these are a proper treat.  The first ever yellow raspberries came, a small total harvest of 5 berries but there's a big cane growing already for next year.  Purple snap peas and tons of kale and chard too.

I'm trying to keep up with picking and drying home grown herbs this year, I've picked oregano and mint this month to dry.  

I trimmed the onion tops back and ended up with a washing up bowl full of onion tops!  I washed and chopped them all, froze two boxes full, and popped another box in the fridge to be used up in stir fries, fritters, Joe's omelettes and I made a particularly delicious green onion pancake too.  I thinned out my cabbage seedlings and ate them, because waste not want not. 

It's all about the berries though this month, I've been out picking them every day! 

That's about it for this month, have you been harvesting much from the garden this month?

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My favourite way to eat left over chips.

What's that I hear you say, left over chips?  Surely such a thing doesn't happen, you eat up all your yummy chips as soon as they pop out of the fryer/oven/takeaway.  But surprisingly sometimes there are left over chips, and this is how I like to eat them up.

Chop the chips up roughly into bite size pieces.

Heat a frying pan and spray in a couple of squirts of oil.

Put the chopped chips into the pan, with a good sprinkle of paprika and

a finely chopped clove of garlic.

Fry for about 5 minutes, add a chopped spring onion for the last minute.

That's it.  Easy peasy, I like to eat it for brunch! 

How do you use up your left over chips?  (if you ever have any, haha!)

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My suburban garden harvest, August 2016.

This plate just makes me smile.  I think it's such a beautiful little harvest!  And I picked my first carrots and purple sugar snap peas!

I've been picking the last of the onions I planted in my front garden raised beds last autumn, they're small but perfectly formed.

I've only planted a few broad bean plants, so I've not had a massive harvest, but enough to add to some chickpeas to make falafels.

Blueberries started ripening this month too!  I've had a fair few little handfuls, enough for Joe to enjoy for breakfast.  One of the strawberries in the raised beds has had a few late fruits on.

I made some lovely herby roast potatoes with my homegrown rosemary and thyme - yum!

Speaking of potatoes, I emptied my second pot of Casablanca potaotes, it was definitely worth leaving them in the pot for longer, I got loads more! 

I feel like this month has been a happy harvest month, I've eaten so much lovely homegrown food! 

How has your garden been this month?  Have you had lots to harvest?

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My suburban garden harvest, June 2016.

Things are getting proper exciting in the garden now! 

I had home grown potatoes!!  I planted two lots of two 'casablanca' seed potatoes in pots in March.  The plants died back and went yellow which I took as a sign that I should probably harvest the potatoes.  I don't have room to grow potatoes in the ground, I just wanted to do a few in pots to give me a couple of meals worth of yummy new potatoes.  And that's exactly what I got.  These went from pot to plate in about 20 minutes and they were perfect! 

There are loads and loads and loads of strawberries in the garden!  I've picked these ones slightly unripe because the blackbirds like strawberries too, and I don't mind a bit of sharing but so far they've eaten them all!  I'm ripening these ones on the windowsill.

I read somewhere that if you don't cut your autumn fruiting raspberries back the old canes will fruit again the following summer.  This is true, my 'Autumn Bliss' are giving me some summer bliss right now.  Same story with the blackbirds and windowsill.  (Actually, does anyone know if raspberries will ripen on a windowsill, or do they need to stay on the plant to achieve their proper level of juiciness?!)

This is the last of my rainbow swiss chard, I've pulled the plants up now cos they'd gone all bolt-y.  I've planted flamingo pink chard and perpetual spinach to replace it.

I'm still pulling onions and garlic from the front garden raised bed.  The onions are small, but perfectly formed, we've enjoyed the wet garlic and it's exciting now it's forming into proper cloves and bulbs.

What have you been digging up, picking and scoffing?  I hope your gardens have been giving you lots of yummy things this month! 

Don't forget to check out my Instagram account for lots of garden-y stuff every week!

Joining in with Harvest Mondays.

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Garden March 2016.

I've been planting seeds this month!  Only a few, as it's still a bit chilly, but seed planting time makes me soo happy! 

I planted some 'Lipstick' sweet peppers, they're an early variety and I bought the seeds from The Real Seed Catalogue.  They're currently hanging out on a sunny windowsill under polythene while they germinate.

I also planted some 'Casablanca' potatoes in some slightly too small pots.  I just want a few new potatoes really, so hopefully my experiment will be a success.  

My other big big excitement this month has been taking delivery of my new shed and mini greenhouse.  So far just the greenhouse up, it arrived flat packed and I would have liked to have done it myself but I managed to hammer in 3 nails, badly, before having a strop.  I would never have been able to build it on my own, it didn't have any holes pre-drilled or proper measurements.  I have IKEA level DIY skills, good job I had a boy to kindly help me! 

This is what the area looked like before, 

And after!  (I've been painting the fence 'Jasmine White' too!)

I'm about half way there with the fence painting.  

Here's my little garden chum this month, a ladybird warming herself up in the new greenhouse.

This time last year I still had my balcony garden at the flat, all those spring bulbs in pots are planted in my garden now! 

I can't wait for things to start growing properly now it's spring!

I've already got forget me nots and tulips coming up!

I want to garden plastic free this year as far as possible, here are some articles I've been using for inspiration and research,

3 cool tips for plastic free gardening from My plastic free life.  There are also good ideas and ponderings in this post on plastic free planting and replanting too.

Ways to get plastic out of your vegetable garden from Rodale's organic life. 

This article from Soft Landings seems to have some useful info on what types of plastics are safer to use.

What's happening in your garden this month?  And do you garden plastic free?  It is even possible?!

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3 easy vegan potato recipes.

Potatoes are one of my favourite foods, so I was super happy to see lots of vegan potato recipes in this month's issue of Vegan Life Magazine.  

Here are my favourite easy, vegan potato recipes,

Chili baby potatoes with chickpeas.

• Slice new potatoes and pop them into a baking dish with some oil, chili powder, a little paprika, sea salt and black pepper.  Add in a tin of chickpeas and roast in the oven until the potatoes are cooked.

Potato cakes.

• Take some left over mashed potato, slice up a couple of spring onions and mix in flour, a tablespoon at a time, until it reaches a roll-out-able consistency.  
• Roll out the dough and cut it into squares using a knife, or with cute cookie cutters.  Fry the potato cakes in a little oil in a frying pan until golden brown, then they're ready to eat!

Potato wedges.

• Take a couple of big baking potatoes, prick with a fork and microwave them until they're cooked.  
• Slice the cooked potatoes into wedges.  You can add some slices of red onion, peppers or leeks to your baking tray too, if you want to add some extra veggies and flavour.  
• Pour a little oil onto a baking tray, add sea salt, black pepper and paprika to taste.  Add in the potatoes, a couple of whole garlic cloves and other veggies, coat with the oil and then roast until crispy.

Image c/o Vegan Life Magazine.

For more yummy vegan potato recipe ideas, check out November 2015's issue of Vegan Life Magazine. 

You can subscribe to Vegan Life on paper or digitally.  There's also a handy app for digital subscriptions. 

Disclosure - I have been provided with a free digital subscription to Vegan Life Magazine in return for reviewing this publication.  I even have my own page in the vegan bloggers section of their lovely website!  All opinions are, of course, my own and always will be.

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