For all those who say "I haven't got room" ...

[Nicos]

...mine look so much prettier though!

[AllInContainers]

Very true!

[Nicos]

I thought you might have been able to persuade Mrs AIC to let you use the table...but it looks like you already have!!
She's a good un isn't she?

[AllInContainers]

She's non-existent, so I never have too much of a fight on my hands

[Nicos]

oh..OK...fair enough!

[Scarlet]

It looks lovely but I hate the chore of watering pots! Every year I say I'm not going to do pots at all but my kitchen door backs onto a yard and if I didn't have pots I wouldn't have any colour, herbs or toms on hand. Watering them takes ages!!!
How long does it take you to water them and how often are you doing it?

[Greenleaves]

Looks realy good AIC, ever thought of a mezzanine?

[AllInContainers]

It looks lovely but I hate the chore of watering pots! Every year I say I'm not going to do pots at all but my kitchen door backs onto a yard and if I didn't have pots I wouldn't have any colour, herbs or toms on hand. Watering them takes ages!!!
How long does it take you to water them and how often are you doing it?

I do it with a hose pipe with one of those rotating bezels that has different spray patterns. 10-20 seconds per pot on "shower" for moderate sized containers (varied according to actual size), 20 seconds on "flood" for each of the strawberry planters, and a good blast with "mist" for anything delicate. Sometimes I'll put it on "cone", and spray a wider area for a bit of extra to be sure, but only in certain areas due to so many ericaceous plants.

Frequency varies according to weather obviously, currently every 4 or 5 days if it doesn't rain unless anything (normally cardoon or globe artichoke) starts to droop, but when it's really hot it will be every other day or every day if anythings wilting. Feeding again varies, but usually once every three weeks or so. All in all, maybe 2 hours of watering/feeding a week on average, 3 maybe 4 hours in the height of the season.

Tonight I just did the ericaceous plants from the builders buckets .... maybe 10-15 minutes toal with a mini watering can, scoop and pour

[AllInContainers]

Looks realy good AIC, ever thought of a mezzanine?

The emergency plan B would be to take over my neighbours garden (to the right) who puts in a grand total of zero hours gardening every year. Two or three times a year, I'll get the machette out and hack down anything that is starting to encroach on my garden or the neighbour the other side ..... but one garden is enough I think

[AllInContainers]

I've just scared myself ..... only 8 weeks ago it looked like this ...





It's going to get "interesting" soon ....

[Penellype]

This is my container garden (about 5mx3m of patio slabs), much of it in deep shade from brick walls to the south and west and a high fence and hedge to the east:


In here we have:
10 of each of 4 varieties of potatoes
1 rhubarb
a metre row of peas
spinach beet
8 leeks plus more seedlings waiting to be transplanted
5 brocolli
8 cauliflower
5 red cabbage
1 green cabbage (there were 4 but I've eaten 3)
2 calabrese
10 kohlrabi
3 pots of carrots
parsley
oregano
garlic chives
2 sorts of spring onion
2 blueberry bushes
2 sorts of raspberries
5 varieties of strawberries
1 compost bin
Behind the trellis is the vegetable garden...

I can still get into the fruit cage, but getting past it to access the rhubarb is becoming something of a challenge. The potatoes in the dustbins at the back, especially Charlotte, are higher than my head.

[AllInContainers]

Marvellous! Nice to see someone else cramming them in

[Penellype]

I think it must have something to do with coming from Yorkshire - we hate to waste anything, space included!

In the "proper" veg garden I have nasturtiums climbing the pea supports and peas climbing the leeks, with spring onions in amongst and runner beans and a cucumber tucked in the corner. Whether I will actually be able to get at any of it to harvest it I have no idea, but its all good fun.

[AllInContainers]

I know what you mean. This area started out quite sensible for harvesting, with earlier stuff at the front and later crops behind, but as the season has evolved and things needed shuffling round, it's not quite retained that "logic".

I might be doing a little reshuffle this weekend though, tucking the stupidly tall cardoon (taller than me already) into the corner, to let a bit more light through to the plants at the back. I reckon the dahlias and QA could do with a good feed anyway, so this will give me chance for that. Hopefully I can make the GA a little more accessible in the process, not that there's any signs of buds yet