Recycling in the veg garden

I've had a bit of a head banging day today, my brain feels as though it has gone to mush. At last I have more or less made my mind up about which route to take on the BIG walk, but knowing me, it won't be finalised untill I actually do it. I have a habit of changing my mind at the last minute. But for now, the proposed route is Morecambe, Carnforth, Kirkby Lonsdale, Ribblehead, Horton, Pen-y-Ghent, Settle, Malham, Grassington, Pateley Bridge, Ripon, Boroughbridge, York, Pocklington, Beverley, Humber Bridge.  This is roughly 150 miles. All the maps are printed, not long now.

I have a baby.....courgette plant. Some of my seeds are growing. I haven't sown many up to now because I have only one window sill to put them on, the cats go on all the others. I will pot a few more up in the next few days, plastic vending cups used.

I bought a new bag of compost, it's a growing bag, cost £1.29 from Aldi. It's organic so it should be good....wrong.

It's crap, mostly wood chippings, looks like it is mainly shredded pallets. Serves me right for buying cheap. Don't buy it.  

It's time for a few running repairs in the garden. I managed to scrounge this shelving unit from B & Q when I worked there, that was over three years ago so it's lasting well. I have been covering it with plastic to make a sort of mini greenhouse type of affair.

This is what I have been using to cover it, a sort of gigantic roll of cling film, it's called shrink wrap and is used to wrap goods onto a pallet in a warehouse. I found some at a car boot sale, the man wanted five pounds, but I knocked him down to £3.50. It's brilliant stuff, stands up to the weather really well. It's two years since I last covered it.

First I put a back on the shelves. I could use the shrink wrap, but to make the job easy, and it's going to be against the side of the garage anyway, I used some white gazebo fabric. Remember when I made ten shopping bags out of the blue stuff I recovered from a skip, this white was from the same piece, but it was too dirty to make into bags. Now it's coming in handy for this job. Tack it on and fix with battens, nail them down.

Then I laid it on it's back, and went round and round several times with the shrink wrap. There is still loads left, I have the home made greenhouse to do next.

Stand it upright, and fill with whatever. I clip a piece of plastic to the front at night to protect plants and seedlings from bad weather.

Not bad at all for saying the shelves were free. In fact everything in my veg garden is made from free reclaimed pallets and timber. I have a garage full of wood of various sizes and lengths. Our Wicks diy store leaves pallets outside their back door, free for anyone who wants to take them away. If you want something for the garden don't buy it, look around and you might find it dumped somewhere. It seems a bit daft to me if you want to grow veg to save money, then spend loads of dosh on greenhouses, raised beds, fancy pots, and suchlike. Defeats the object really, you might as well have not bothered and just gone out and bought the veg. Happy growing.