Busy Lizzies Dezire Select Mixed in wall pouches on balcony 26-06-2013

lovely pillars taking up very little actual space!

Yes these wall pouches are very good for giving you lots of plants in a very reduced space & they are tough & will last for several years! You can get at least 10/12 plants in each one as they have pre-cut "slots" in which to put your plants. Very handy & I've had two sets of two pouches over 12 years! They can get very heavy when full of water!

To fill them I usually but a tray of 20 plug plants from a supermarket. It only costs me £3 for the plants + whatever the compost costs me - less than that. One tip, (should you ever decide to buy a couple for yourself), is to put a plastic tube, in which a few dozen tiny holes have been drilled, down the centre of each pouch, they can be very difficult to wet all the way down otherwise!

They also need a fairly strong nail to hold them up. Nevertheless, once in place you won't need to do anything more. As you have difficulty in lifting things you might want to get someone to hang them up for you once they have been planted up. Water them AFTER hanging them up!

I had a couple of those 6-pocket ones, but was never sure how much water would get to the bottom - the "pockets" were just slits in the sides, and that would have been filled with plant. so the top may have drowned and the bottom die of thirst.

I did have some moss poles, but same prob there: how do you keep the moss moist without drwoning the plant?

I thought of using a plastic tube for both; pierced at intergals, slid down inside the moss, and inside the plant tower, to ensure that water reached all the way down. Never tried it, so no idea if it would have worked.

lolol great minds think alike! i read and answered your first paragraph and then went on with the train of thought, then went back to your second paragraph and found you'd headed me off at the pass!

I don't have anywyhere to hang anything, really - I could get some brackets on the wall, but I've got some hanging baskets and wall torughs to go up - I should do those first, then my towers can fit in the gaps.

I, too, had that problem at first! You have to water little & often but it is still a struggle to really reach the bottom plants. I used to notice that the ones at the bottom didn't do as well as those at the top.

I can't claim authorship of the idea of putting in a piece of plastic pipe & drilling holes in it! I seem to remember reading it online somewhere once. Nevertheless I've been using the tubes for years now!

One year I filled them up with vermiculite so they would hold onto the water for longer & let it out slowly as the plants had need of it. Didn't work very well! Especially once it became dry, after the growing season was over. I left it in the tubes over the winter for the following summer but it set almost like concrete! Now I leave them empty. The air doesn't seem to bother the plants, perhaps it even benefits them? I just pour water in once or twice a week at the same time making sure I also water around the tube at the top or the reverse would happen & they would dry out for lack of water! LOL!

maybe I could try a small watering tube at each level, then each would get some. but then water from above would overflow the lower ones. Maybe I'll find my "towers" and then find something to put in them, and then I'll be able to experiment.

The tubes I use work quite well as my plants have now filled out very nicely & are looking really lovely! You really don't need to go to all the trouble of putting in tubes at different levels.

thanks, dear, I really do want to find them - and then find something to put in them - think I'll take a leaf from your book and go for the same plants (or the same variety, these plants are already spoken for!). And even if hte squirrels do come back, these towers should be a bit more difficult to get at