one-tree-forest

Yes, I can easily imagine a miniature landscape there Fran, why not add some moss, a few small rocks and bits of drift wood and create one?! :)

That's good thinking that tube ,I have camellias and Rhododendrons in pots where the roots are so solid the water runs off the surface and down through the inside outer edge of the pot doing very little use,.I then have to lift them and stand them in water. I have seen lemonade bottle set down in the ground with the ends cut off but like your idea better.Thanks

I've been planning a mini landscape for oh, about ten yaers, Anujag, and have been reserarching plants to such an extent that I've tied myself in knots - I need to stop planning and start doing!

Though I could make this one tub a mini-landscape all on its own, I hadn't thought of that before, thanks!

I've been doing something like that for a while, Bjs - I save 2-litre milk bottles, put small holes in the sides and bury them for deep watering; I keep the lid on in the hope that that will stop air getting to the roots. The idea is that they trickle, but I'm having probs getting the hole small enough.

I suppose any bottle will do, provided it didn't contain anything that mgiht harm the plants or soil; water bottles, milk bottles, whatever. In our rased garden bed at the charity office, we even used 5-litre water bottles sunk beside some large shrubs, but the plastic was tough and so the holes were too big.

I think washing up liquid bottles with the top wrenched off
and the bottom cut off are just as effective. Takes a while for the water to soak down.

Definitely a forest in the making! I like your tube idea too, thanks for that :)

I've been thinking about miniature landscapes for ages ,the main problem that's holding me back is, What scale should I work to?

I've looked up "miniature landscape" online, but mostly get model railway layouts. And there's a miniature gardening site, Two Green Thumbs, but they're so mini as to be almost microspic, at least for my vision!

it would need to be to some sort of scale, otherwise it'd look daft, but it has to be something large enough for me to be able to work with. I did think of looking up the height of a dwarf tree, and the height of a normal version, then using that as the scale, but some 24-inch dwarf conifers can be 150 feet in full size varieties, and that's a heck of a scale!

I have had 3 Golden Conifers growing in big square pots for many years now. They have now reached over 5ft high & have had to be moved to the back of the balcony against the windows as the wind was blowing them over last year.

Just last week I cut off a few of the lower branches as I'm loathe to get rid of them! Where they are at present they will lose foliage on the back as they get next to no light being against the windows. They also reduce the light coming into our living room! They also need a lot of water during the warmer days we get - at least a 2lt bottle of water a day!

I gave my other two large conifers away last week - they were the spreading/sprawling kind, and just took up too much room, as well as being just about thelimit of what i could lift and carry - I had to repot them back in the same pots as they were the largest I had. Kept this one because it's upright and doesn't take up so much horizontal space and can be "underplanted" with other pots close to it.

I have about a dozen 5-litre water bottles that U use to water the plants - don't have an external tap, but doubt I'd use it for a hose even if I had - i fill the bottles and let them stand, so the water reaches ambient temperature and isn't such a shock for the plants.

That's one reason I don't use my hose on the kitchen tap - besides it taking about fifteen minutes to fit it and wrap something round it to stop it spraying all over the kitchen! I've had two handymen adjust it, but neither could get it to fit well enough to keep th ekitchen dry. sigh.

The main problem with using bottles is I have to fill them at the tap, then lug them outside - adds up to about 60 litres of water - don't know how much a litre weighs but when it comes to the 12th bottle, feels like half a ton. Then i've got to uncap each, lift and tilt to fill up the watering can, again and again and again ... who needs a home gym?!

I can perfectly sympathize with you with the refilling of the water bottles! I use 2lt bottles. We bought many bottles of mineral water many years ago now & it occurred to me I could save them & use them for watering my plants.

(BTW: 1lt=1kg (approx. 1lt=2.2pints 1kg= (+/-) 2.2lb) for water. (Other liquids depend on their own weight but I do know that 1lt water=1kg.)

Like you I never water with cold water direct from the tap, it's too cold. I always water using water that has stood for at least 24h & so is at ambient temp.

When in Spain I used 5lt water bottles which I refilled after every use - but then I was MUCH younger! I also used MORE water than now! Even so I lug around 4 bottles at a time. During 6 months they stay in a cupboard between the living room & the kitchen. I imagine that when the flats were built (beginning of the '60s) it was a larder. The other 6 months they are on the balcony. So I have to work harder for 6 months of the year making no end of trips between balcony & kitchen with the empty/full bottles! Though to cut down a fraction I do carry 5 full bottles & about 7/8 empty ones back & forth! What fun!!! :-D)

thanks for the litre-kg equivalent, Balcony; I suppose i oculd have weighed a litre and found out for myself (if I'd thought of it). I can remember trying to work down from 1 gallon = 10 lb, wthouht stopping to wonder why smaller units were called *fluid* ounces!!

i used the hose a couple of times, when i had a lot more plants, but it took so long to set up so that the tap fitting didn't spray half the kitchen! but then I thought, if i were snug in the sun, I'd not appreciate being drenched with a forceful jet of ice cold water!

I imagine you would use more water in Spain than UK, tad hotter out there and evaproation rates must be very high!

i have about a dozen 5-litre bottles, which live outside all the time: when I had more plants, there was enough for two thorough waterings, so that meant that each set had a day to warm up before being used; then I'd fill the empty ones, which would also have a day to warm up. sometimes it wasd too much like hard work, but the weather did the watering for me for ages.

I actually did think of getting a small water butt, even though there's no downpipes to plumb it into: then i could fill it from the tap as and when I felt like it and there'd always be water on tap, so to speak. but then, maybe I'd not be so regular in filling it from bottles filled at the kitchen sink, I'd probably let it run out. Either way, sight too much fetching and carrying!

I understand about the fetching & carrying all too well! I had to fill at least 12 2lt bottles yesterday! Today I have at least 6 waiting to be filled up again in the kitchen. At least it obliges me to do the washing up! LOL!

lol at least with a dozen alrge bottles they don't have to be filled up so often - and having an external garden, the rain does a lot of that for me anyway. but then I don't grow nearly as many plants as you do