Friday 18 July 2014

Making the most of some remnants

Some weeks ago when I planted my Leeks I used the best ones but kept the others as spares, just in case of casualties. I put several of the spares into a couple of flower-pots, to grow them for "baby" Leeks, and they are doing well - not quite ready yet, but looking great:


The remaining spares have languished in their little 3" pots ever since. The nutrients in the compost have long since been exhausted, and the plants were merely surviving, hardly growing at all. I should really have thrown them away, but for some indefinable reason I kept them. I suppose it is instinctive in a gardener to preserve plants, not destroy them.

Anyway, it suddenly dawned on me that these Leeks finally had a chance - the big pots in which my potatoes have been grown are becoming available one-by-one as I harvest the potatoes. I have also kept the compost from them. Put these things together, and you get this:


As you can see, I have planted the Leek seedlings very deep, so hopefully I will get a decent length of blanched plant.


I have done the same with a couple of spare "Tundra" cabbages:


So down at the bottom of the garden a new plantation of pots is springing up...


These plants are not the best specimens - I chose the best ones for my main crop - but they will probably still be worthwhile. Now, I just have to work out where to put all these Lettuce, Chicory and Endive seedlings...


4 comments:

  1. Good job you kept them going! Waste not want not.

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  2. I have seedlings from my fall plantings that I still haven't tossed. I really should. Unlike you I don't grow things in pots because I always forget to water someday and then they die. So except for the mint and the large container in front of the house (which is big enough to hold quite a bit of water), I have no pots. I wish I did. It would be so pretty to have some on the back steps.

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  3. You always seem to have lots of seedlings to fill any space that comes available in the garden. I must improve on that.

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  4. Will the lettuce squeeze between the leeks?

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