On one of my many girly lunches out with Mum at her local Wyevale garden center during Autumn of last year, I bought these two half price sets. One is a galvanised planter and the other a small hanging basket, they've been stashed under boxes at the end of the polytunnel ever since then. I rediscovered them at the weekend ... and decided to put them into use.
If this had cost me the full £7.99 I might have felt a bit short-changed but at just £4 I was happy. A half decent, if a bit small hanging basket, a bag of very fine compost and a packet with five tomato seeds ... yes I said FIVE ... you don't get extras here mate!!
The seeds were dated 'Use by 2018' so at least they had a long shelf life.
I decided to mix the compost in with some of my own as it seemed very dry and almost too fine to be holding on to any nutrients, maybe though that was just after it's long wait to be used. I also added some of those little granules that swell with water when you wet them, and help to keep plants in hanging baskets nice and moist for longer.
I didn't fill the basket too much as I like to add some more soil once tomato plants start to grow, it helps to strengthen them as they get more roots higher up the stem.
And I've just simply hung the basket under my hanging shelf in the polytunnel, it will be interesting to see if they grow. It's also going to be very interesting to see how many tomatoes I get in the polytunnel this year, I seem to have gone a little bit mad sowing tomato seeds ;-)
I also sowed the seeds in the little galvanised planter, they were a mixture of Mixed Leaves and Nasturtium and came with exactly the same little bag of compost. There were rather a lot of the nasturtium seeds, and knowing how overrun I was in the polytunnel last year with nasturtiums I decided to put a few of these seeds into plant pots as I didn't want to overcrowd the salad leaves too much.
Lets hope my little edible bargains grow well, I always think it's worth buying some of the garden centres reduced to clear things.
Sue xx
