Saturday, January 4, 2014

Free plants

I'm for free plants! 
A great trick I learned about tomatoes, is that the laterals - they are the ones that grow in the middle of the good branch and the stalk - are great new plants.  All you do is let them grow a bit - about 4 inches seems to do the trick, and then take them out and plant them.  Free tomatoes!

 
 


These are the ones you want, just take the sucker out and pant it straight into the garden.  I usually do it just before I water them in the evening.



But I also borrow bits of plants that I see from time to time, for example, I have been looking for a ground cover, I  need something really hardy as it will be neglected, and have to grow in about 3cm of 'soil' (well, sand really!).  Our local pool has a lovely and partly neglected garden, and I found a lovely little ground cover there with little blue flowers that seems to thrive on neglect.  So I 'borrowed' a couple of pieces of it and have planted it under our port wine camellia.  I have also been known to pinch a leaf or two off a succulent plant and plant it in my garden.  These were all borrowed from the local bowls club or outside a local hospital. 

Lets hope this little ground cover survives the Aussie summer heat!


Of course, I NEVER take a whole plant, just a tiny piece.  Recently I planted a lovely pigs face in my front garden only to find someone took the whole plant!  Nasty person that, karma will get them.

Another thing you can do is pick up pots from roadside throw outs.  These can be useful in the garden for starting plants off, or if they are big enough, for lovely new herbs.  If you find some concrete or terra cotta ones in not fabulous condition - just paint them up.  Below are a couple of great ideas.





...........................................................................................................................

No comments:

Post a Comment