How do you get creative to make more space?

[Penellype]

I've never grown cucumbers before and read that they are tricky things to grow, so when I planted the first one out I sowed an extra one as insurance. The trouble is, I can never bear to throw anything away. I was going to plant the extra one after the peas, but the peas are still in full flow and the cucumber had outgrown its pot and was threatening to climb everything in the vicinity. What to do?

This was my solution:


The original plant is in the square pot and the smaller plant is on the right. As I can hardly leave it to climb the leylandii hedge, I've put some string across the original support (made from bits of a blowaway greenhouse) and hopefully I will be able to train the plant towards the support.

The 4 tomato plants in front are also short of a home. I'm considering the following:
1. wait until the peas have finished.
2. dig up a few onions and replace with tomatoes - some of the onions have produced flower spikes and probably need using soon.
3. transplant into larger pots and wait for the onions to finish. Housing the larger pots could prove problematical.

I've also about 30 leeks to house somewhere, not to mention broccoli waiting in the wings and spring cabbage yet to sow...

What do you do when you run out of space?

[Bren In Pots]

Up to yet I've filled in a pond and dug up part of the lawn for beds so the only option left for me is to use pots and redundant recycling boxes.

[taff]

That big pot should be big enough for both cucumbers if you water it regularly and feed it regularly. WHy can't you let it grow up the hedge?

As for the rest.....I had to steel myself to throw some awya this year at the potting on stage and gave them away after the potting on stage. I still felt guilty though....

[Florence Fennel]

I keep digging up my vast lawn, or I use builders buckets. Good luck finding somewhere for them.

[Bill HH]

Get someone who does have space to foster them and share the crop?

[AllInContainers]

I shuffle things around until they fit Trees and bushes can tesselate quite nicely, as for the others I consider heights sizes and what growing conditions they will tolerate (even if not ideal) and the experiment to see what fits where. Several times this year I ran out of space, then shuffled pots round to create a new gap or three.

I'm even now considering the next reshuffle so I can add a water butt into the arrangement. The trick is to be mindful of finished sizes at the end of the growing season, and not just focus on current plant sizes.

If I reach a point where I don't think I can afford to give a plant the space it needs, I get rid of it

[Penellype]

That big pot should be big enough for both cucumbers if you water it regularly and feed it regularly. WHy can't you let it grow up the hedge?

As for the rest.....I had to steel myself to throw some awya this year at the potting on stage and gave them away after the potting on stage. I still felt guilty though....

As I say, I haven't grown cucumbers before, so I planted the first one in the middle of its pot. I did have a scrape around to see if I could dig a hole for the other one, but the pot seemed to have roots through it and I didn't want to kill the bigger plant...

Wouldn't the weight of the cucumbers damage the hedge?

[solway cropper]

I have an 80 foot long by 6 foot high privet hedge which I considered a bit of a waste of space until I realized it could be used as a support for all manner of things including peas, runner beans, squashes and tomatoes. My hedge can happily support a full size Uchiki Kuri squash so cukes won't be a problem.

[taff]

I did have a scrape around to see if I could dig a hole for the other one, but the pot seemed to have roots through it and I didn't want to kill the bigger plant...

Wouldn't the weight of the cucumbers damage the hedge?

Push the compost away from one corner and put the plant in there.
Nah, leylandii can surivive almost anything...unfortunately....