100 plants

Thats alot of plants Fran & alot of work for you!
Looks like your having fine weather to do it in, lets hope it holds up :-)

fingers crossed here too! of course it only needs to be warm for two days before they slap the hosepipe ban on again!

But I've been itching to get out ther and get my hands dirty; had to wait till I'd done the wall, which had to wait on the weather. But now I can at least make a start - move stuff so I can get to other stuff to move that, and then I can get to the tables and *start* - once I've moved enough pots to give me some room to work. And then it'll be "bend-and-dip-lift-and-carry" till I've finally potted the last one - and then several rearrantements, more "lift-and-carry" till I wonder what the heck I ever started this for!

But I still can't think of a better way to get a backache. :-)

All looking lovely Fran, has your hose pipe ban been lifted? Have sent you a pm.

Good going, Fran. Yes, you're right - nothing like getting weary after a good day with the plants.

I think the hosepipe ban is still in force in South-East England, but it's mostly academic as it's quicker for me to use a watering can, even if that does involve a lot of lifting and straining to reach plants at the back. I'd maybe use a hose more if I could get the damn thing connected to my kitchen tap without having to readjust it four times cos it's spraying all over the kitchen!

Besides, tap water comes out very cold, which I'm sure is a shock for the plants - well, it'd be a shock to me to be lazing in the sun and be suddenly sprayed with a jet of f icy water ! I use 5-litre water bottles to store tap water, so that it can warm to the right temperature before use. Though it's a bit of a drag to have to fill them, lug 'em outside, lift 'em, unscrew 'em and tip water into the watering can a dozen times in a watering session - and then fill the bottles up at the tap again ... maybe if I had an outside tap with a hose plumbed in, or a kitchen tap connector that fitted properly the first time I might think again.

Have you got a spare drainpipe anywhere near Fran? It would be alot easier to fit a water butt.

Well done Fran, I can see a bit more space to fill on your wire fence so room for a few more.(:0)

there's no downpipes on any part of the block that I can see, Poppylover - I'd promised myself that I'd get a water butt as well as a c omposter, and was rather taken aback to find no pipes to connect it to! I've no idea where the rain is directed, but it's not on the outside of this side of the block.

I suppose I could get a waterbut anyway, and fill it from the tap; it'd be easier to get a watering can under that. But the bottles store under the table, out of the way.

I don't know how much weight the fence will support, Poppylinda, so I'd prefer not to risk it - especially as I'd probably get the bill for making good after it had fallen down!

Now I've got that bit of the wall done, I can put my wall-mounted planters up and get them planted; I can have other planters on the ground under and between them. That should give me a bit more table space.

I'm hoping to get a gate put in my fence to the green beyond: if that's allowed, I'll have rather a lot more space to spread out

You do fit a lot in Fran, its a shame you do not have access to a downpipe, you do have a lot of lifting and carrying to do when watering....

Smashing Fran....dont go doing too much or else you won't be able to enjoy!! Pity you have so much trouble getting your water organised. Funny how we all manage to soldier on as best we can in the name of gardening :)

LoL, the shopping trolley is full!

Thanks, Lincs and Scottish; I do mean to ask the council where the water actually goes, it has to be led down to the drains eventually, but probably nowhwere it'd be of any use to me. even if I could get a butt on it, I'd still have to bring it home, and that's probably entail more lifting and carrying than I'm doing now.

That's also partly why I wanted to get part of the space covered - I wanted a weatherproof outdoor space to work, to put my laundry (keep tripping over the airers indoors) and as a bonus, I could maye save *some* rain if I could get a pipe between the "roof" and the butt. That's no go, sadly, unless I spend £££ on planning permission and surveryor's drawings - and even then they might refuse permission.

lol Scottish, the "least we can do" is - well, soldier on! we do what we can with what we've got to produce the best possible result. :-) that's what being a gardener is all about.

There's only two plants in the small shopping trolley, Lulu, but they're on the big side. Unfortunately, the trolley has those braked wheels that won't go far without jamming (how someone got it so far from the shop to leave beside our dustbins beats me!), which means having to lift the front wheels off the ground and tow it to where it's needed; not sure I could do that with it loaded with soil and plants. Of course it'd be easy if I could find exactly where I wanted it and where I was sure it'd never need to be moved - as if!

I have a bigger, deepoer shopping trolley too, but that might be a bit deep for planting into; I've had plastic crates in there for the pots to stand on so they're not too deeply in, otherwise bending over the trolley to lift big pots out is a bit of a strain.

I did think about waterproofing the lower section and putting a lid on it, then planting over, so that it would be would be "self-watering" and I'd only need to top up the reservoir underneath, but not sure how to do that, and not sure if the total weight would be too m uch.

Maybe I could get someone to take the braked wheels off the small trolley and put non-jamming ones on - or convert the front wheels to a skateboard!

I fully sympathize with your watering problems. Fran, as I have similar problems as well. As you know I also live in a flat with only a balcony to garden on - let's forget about the allotments, they don't count! - & I keep my water for the plants in 2lt bottles that I fill up & empty & fill up & ... well, you get the picture! I've been using them for many years now! As you rightly say the tap water is too cold to use directly on our plants.

I also sympathize with your moving plants around as I do the same! I have 3 long white troughs that I fill & empty twice a year. The time is almost upon me to change them now. I have to remove the spring flowering bulbs to put in the summer bedding then in October switch around again! I have some Sweetpeas growing in pots that will go in the troughs & several other kinds of flowering plants in the greenhouse on the allotment I can bring home to put on the balcony as well. I'll also be putting in some Morning Glories & a few Nasturtiums. I couldn't do without my climbing plants! I'm thinking of getting some Petunia plugs to put in the pots on the balcony railings just like I did last year. They flowered so prolifically that I thought I'd repeat this year.

Great to hear from you, Balcony, been mising you!

I think a lot of my prob is that I've still not yet decided on a permananet position for most plants; I'm still faffing around trying this and that and then this again. Once I sort myself out and make a once-for-all decision, that'llhelp - at least that's what I tell myself!

I don't have space for climbing plants unless I try to get 'em up the fence; and I won't have anywhere for hanging baskets until I can get some brackets in. - I did think of putting some rope across from window to fence and using that to hang things on, but it needs to be high enough that I don't head-butt it but low enough for me to reach to water, so I don't think I'll be able to do that.

I'm tending to think of foliage plants more than flowers, apart from pansies and some that I really want (night-scented stock, for one, under the bedroom window, and day-scented stock under the lounge window), so I won't be doing much annually with beddng plants - certainly not a smuch as you'll be doing!

Where do you keep the bulbs you take up to put bedding plants in? you'd need a fair bit of storage space for that alone.