Sometimes you just have to take a step back and problem solve – and this may involve some improvisation! On Sunday morning, rather than continuing to mither about a lack of pots and potting on compost, I tasked myself with finding alternatives to the methods I normally use. A quick google search set me off on a hunt for a tool I was given several years ago – for making pots out of newspaper. Having found it at the back of a shelf in the garage, I dusted it off and set to work – with surprising (and satisfying) results!
Aptly, I used Saturdays’ ‘Weekend’ supplement from The Times – the pages from the second part of Joe Swift’s ‘Grow Your Own’ article were the first to be converted into 3cm pots! I’d soon used the whole supplement and moved onto the Review – a great recycling project!
Using a very simple technique, I had sufficient pots in no time at all. The second problem solved was the potting medium – I mixed multi-purpose compost (with John Innes) with seed compost. I have no idea whether this was a good idea, but with no available specialist compost or topsoil to mix with the multi-purpose, I’m hoping this will be successful.
A satisfying project all round, all my tithonia ‘Torchlight’ and capsicum ‘Fairy Lights’ are now potted on and in placed in a gravel tray. Tomatoes, verbascum and rudbeckia next!
A BLOG OF TWO GARDENS 
Excellent – although it’s hard to find newspaper in this house any more. I am saving toilet rolls through the winter instead. What’s that little wooden object you are using to coil the paper around?
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It’s a paper pot maker, I’ve looked on Amazon and quite a few come up, bit expensive.. I can’t remember who gave me mine, but probably my mom as a stocking filler at Christmas.
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