Growing food in hanging baskets and containers at Bealtaine Cottage
Container gardening at Bealtaine Cottage focuses on intensive, small-space permaculture, using pots, hanging baskets, and bottomless planters to grow food while bypassing slug issues. Techniques include using high-quality compost for moisture retention, blending edible plants with flowers, and utilizing vertical space for herbs, salads, and vegetables like tomatoes, kale, and leeks.
Key Container Gardening Techniques at Bealtaine Cottage
- Slug Protection: Starting plants in pots and using planters keeps food safe from slugs, a key strategy for the Irish climate.
- Sustainable Growing: The, Bealtaine Cottagemethods focus on, “no-dig,” and, “easy-grow,” techniques, often using compost-only mixtures in hanging baskets.
- Water Management: While many containers need regular watering, some containers at Bealtaine have been reported to stay lush without constant watering due to compost quality.
- Companion Planting: Containers are arranged to combine herbs, flowers, and vegetables, such as mixing thyme, lavender, and lettuce for healthier, more productive, “quirky,” pots.
- Innovative Planters: Utilizing, “bottomless pots,” for deep-rooted plants like pumpkins allows them to access soil nutrients while keeping the main plant protected.
Commonly Grown Crops in Containers
- Salad Greens: Lettuce, Mizuna, and Spinach are often grown in hanging baskets, reducing the need for daily, “cut-and-come-again,” foraging.
- Herbs: Lemon Balm, Thyme, and Parsley are grown in pots near the veranda for easy access.
- Vegetables: Kale, Broccoli, Carrots, and Tomatoes are staples, often grown in specialized, or, “recycled,” pots.
- Fruit: Strawberries and small fruits are well-suited for hanging baskets.
Key Tips for Success
- Verticality: Utilizing, “hanging baskets,” allows for growing in small, shaded spaces.
- Soil Health: The use of, “good quality compost,” is emphasized, rather than just soil from the ground.
- Variety: Growing, “perennial vegetables,” and, “edible self-seeding annuals,” in, “containers,” maximizes, “harvests,” with low maintenance.Â
It’s a bit late in the season, but now that family things have been sorted, I intend to grow some edible things in my forest garden in baskets, pots and actually some flowers in some really old boots. Thank you for posting things on youtube and uploading information, honest opinions and the like. As for the thing about AI, oh my word!!! My son took a photo of me and changed it into a video of me being kissed by a bunch of women. I think there’s a serious threat to our freedom, because someone could accuse someone of a crime and produce some shite AI video…. Anyways, I’m sure I’m preaching to the choir typing it to you, but worry that our young people don’t always see dangers, they of course feel brave and invincible, as wicked people take them on to their destruction (sorry, started to get hot under the collar).
Lovely practical gardening tips ….. love seeing your beautiful garden Colette. Thanks for sharing and happy gardening!
You have the best ideas and I love learning new things from you.đź’š
Thanks Colette. That looks wonderful, I like eclectic gardening too. Hope you are staying well.
Cheers,
Michael
I’ve been inventive this year Colette growing strawberries in hanging baskets and veg in old sinks. Anything to help the battle with slugs who last year decimated the salad leaves – we didn’t get one picking.
Lovely photos of your beautiful garden. The nest in the strawberries bought a smile.
Uplifting and inspirational. I’ve been put off by slugs badgers and a squirrel either eating or digging up any food I’ve tried to go but today I try again ! Thank you Colette x
Your precious hanging basket plantings look like a picture book to me. They are beautiful and at the same time they are inspiring, and just so much fun. Colette, you inspired me to buy strawberry plants today. And I found leek seedlings, which are not easily available in our area. I promise not to plant them together in the same container. LOL
Uplifting especially bird nesting in strawberry patch. From Cleveland Ohio East side Lake Erie is our North.
Great idea Colette ! I live in not far from you in Leitrim and the slugs in my garden are unbelievable, planting in hanging baskets might just be the answer for me. I think that’s a Robins nest by the way.
Best wishes, Katherine
Hey Colette!
Great minds think alike: I’ve recently started growing a lot of food in containers. San Francisco is so damp, there are a lot of snails and slugs. Also, my yard only has a few sunny spots. I’ve been hanging containers on the fence and growing lettuce and peas. I use compost I make from all the quail poop, plus perlite and coconut coir. I just bought 2 Greenstalk planters. They have 5 tiers each, and I put them on a Lazy Susan so I can spin them to get sun. I’ve got kale, lettuce, peas, beets, carrots, cucumbers, and chard. I have some mini tomatoes and mini peppers started, but I don’t have a lot of hope for them. Tomatoes just shiver and turn black around here.
I’ve also got oregano and thyme in pots, plus cosmos and corn flowers. Fun stuff, eh?
all the best,
Lori Z.
Love this! I’ve been growing micro greens in wide mouth mason jars in my front window💚Check out “keep on growin” on YouTube or Whatnot.
You’re true đź©·
Plenty of love , life, light…
Thanks for being
Anne ( France)
Have had a garden for many years but not as easy now due to disability. Learning to deal with my challenges because I love our little piece of land. Thank you for sorting many new ideas which I am going to try