Ever since getting my own place I’ve always been interested in growing my own food produce.
Strawberry plants are a good plant to start with as they are easy to care for, hardy and grow again year after year. Oh, they taste pretty fine too!
It started when I lived in a flat in Croydon with a shared garden. I bought my first strawberry plant, watered it daily, even talked to it (!) and watched in awe as one big juicy strawberry grew and grew, looking juicier and more delicious by the day. One morning I was out watering and decided it was THE day to eat it! Excited as it was the first thing I’d ever grown, I decided I would wait until I got home from work, even picking up a pot of clotted cream to enjoy with the lonely strawberry! Imagine my horror when on my return, I rushed out to pick the berry and it had vanished!! To this day I still don’t know where it went!!
Fast forward 5 years, and a different house, in a different county, and I decided to try again. This time buying several strawberry plants for my patio pots in the hope I’d manage to raise more than one strawberry! I had 3 good years of strawberry harvesting, until we moved house again (the strawberry plants came with me!) In our new pad the patio is a bit larger so I’ve decided to be a bit braver and branch out.
My pinterest patio project
After months of scouring Pinterest you can find my boards here and looking for patio veg inspiration, I found this page of beauties
I fell in love with the wine crate vegetable planters and set about finding some wine crates. I couldn’t believe my luck when not long into my search, a lady posted about some being available on my local Facebook buy/sell page. I fired a quick email off to her and arranged to pick up the next day!
my wine crates that I bought of Facebook for £20!
My favourite- I got given this from a students dad who is a wine merchant (get in!) as Chateuneuf du pape is my all time favourite wine
Preparing my wine crates
First things first was to sand down any sharp edges. I* (read Keefy!) then drilled some drainage holes into the bottom of the boxes.
I then cut some holes into a grow bag that I no longer needed and stapled it inside each wine box to create a lining.
Finally I coated each box with some Danish Oil to waterproof each box. They are now ready for planting!
Planted with 2 x courgettes plants, 1 cucumber plant as an experiment and 1 tomato plant
Planted with 2 Aubergine Plants
planted with 2 x bell pepper plants but they don’t look too healthy at the moment
Recycled tins= hanging colourful herb garden
Another Pinterest inspiration, I saved 3 baked bean cans, washed them and then drilled* (well Keefy drilled!) drainage holes in the bottom and a screw hole in the back. I then painted them with craft paint from Wilkos and planted my herbs; mint, thyme and parsley. Have to say, I’m really pleased with how these look!
Saxylydz 