The planning starts in earnest....

Now that we have Christmas out of the way for another year, and whilst we are waiting for the days to stretch and weather to improve, I thought we could cheer ourselves up by sharing plans (and of course advice and tips)?

One of my first projects will be to revisit the strawberry tower of last year - sadly, this wasn't as successful as I had hoped; I am not overly sure that the strawberry runners that I got were the healthiest (indeed, they weren't even the variety that I ordered), but equally I am not convinced that the plants up the tower were getting the water/nutrition they needed; this could be partly due to the size of the gap between the inner and outer pipes, but also due to the compost being quite woody (I think it compacted and hardened quite quickly). Anyway, net result is only a few of the plants up the tower survive.

Now, I quite like the idea of this petunia tower to sit at the front door, so I am wondering whether to convert the strawberry tree into a petunia tree and just order the plug plants from T&M? However, I am not sure if it would work in its current form:


The above was taken as I made it last year. If I do use it, I have two options that I can think of:

- gut it out and if necessary use the pressure washer to persuade any stubborn compost out of the gap between the inner and outer pipes

- as above, but be less fussy about the compost in between the pipes, then cut a hole in the upright that goes all the way through from one side to the other, then shove a bit of wood through (bit like a dowel), then cutting a hole in the bottom of another pot to slide over the upright pipes, then screw some self tappers through the bottom of the pot into the wooden dowel to hold it in place -thus, the idea being a pot top and bottom with trailing plants cascading over the sides?

Or, do I save myself the grief and go for the plants and frame from T&M?

 

You are definitely not alone Kristen - mine has been pretty disastrous too; I'd estimate that I have lost at least half of all my plants.

Shame they are so sun hungry, or I would move them over to the ground on the left side of the garden

 

What about adding a pot at the top, and then growing something like dichondra argentea


in the wee holes that are in the pipe (thinking that this will be a bit more tolerant to slight variations in watering?), with a mixture of the petunias in the pots top and bottom?

 

I have never managed to grow sweet peas, despite a few attempts - they just don't seem to like me

 

Aye, you are right - and the more I think about it, the more I think I should keep it simple and just go for the T&M pack with the frame for them to climb up. Its not as if I haven't got enough planned to keep me occupied