Chimney pot garden!!!

auntie_brenda

A very nice builder let me have a chimney pot - now I don't know what to do with it!!!!! Do I have to fill it with soil/compost? Can anyone think of a suitable thing I can bung in it? What's best to grow in it - was thinking of tumbling toms but would strawberries be as good / do better?
I assume the soot on the walls will be ok?????

lauralla

Soot is good for your garden! I have a chimney pot too, its by my front door, and I have stuck a pot in the top of it - it just fits nicely. But you could fill the chimney pot part way up with rubble (perhaps speak nicely to your builder?!) and then put some soil in for the last section.
You can grow pretty much anything in a pot, its up to you. Both tomatoes and strawberries would be good, as the slugs will find it more difficult to crawl up there and eat the fruit! Strawberries and toms will need plenty of sunlight, and don't forget to water them every day in the summer, possibly twice a day in hot weather.

Sujamjen

I've got 2 pots, one is full of house leeks (succulents) and the other has an evergreen, trailing,blue flowering periwinkle in it. Both plants thrive on neglect and only get watered in the very driest weather. The soil in them has to be topped up every couple of years or so but that is about the only maintenance required. Good luck.

Pink.

Hi auntie brenda,

You should get more help with this on the Greenfingered Moneysaving board so I'll move your thread over there.

Pink

Penny_Farthing_2

Hi Auntie Brenda

A few tips - find a plastic plant pot that you can ram down inside the chimney pot so you can pick up and move the whole thing round the garden without all the soil falling out the bottom. Or if it's staying in one place, line the inside with an ols compost bag with holes pierced for drainage. If the clay is porous, this will stop the water evaporating through the pot.

Also, you can put a mulch of gravel etc around a permanent planting to keep the water in. You could use swell gel water retaining crystals in the compost.

If you get a lots of containers they can be a pest to water so by starting with water retaining measures, you can save a lot of work.

Penelope_Penguin

I have some lovely old chimney pots. To make them into proper pots, I stood them on a piece of old board (a piece of kitchen carcase) then made up some cement to fill the bottom (about 5cm deep). I put a small piece of wood in the cement to leave a drainage hole.

I agree - plenty of crocks for drainage.

Tomatoes will do well, as will strawberries, as long as you give plenty of water.

HTH, Penny. x

auntie_brenda

Thanks everyone. Like the idea of the house leeks - used to have them years ago. However, this MUST be used for food!!!! Need to decide between toms and strawberries - am moe of a veg person but as these are both fruit!!!! May just go with the strawberries as warm strawberries are lush - but so are warm tomatoes......

Lauralla, may take up your suggestion and speak to the builder again (may wait for warmer weather and diet coke breaks though :whistle:)

Looking forward to spring!!!!!

janeawej

i put a saxifriga into one of mine (it looked like a tufty wig on top of the pot!!!) and a daisy like flower (cant remember the name!) in the other they both looked lovely

Cacran

Hey auntie Brenda, didn't you mean that house leeks must NOT be used for food? I was sure they were the inedible ornimental things that people plant on shed roofs and things.