Garden And Gossip Forums

This old bath was a water trough used by the cows grazing in the field when we bought it (and indeed afterwards, although nobody thought to mention it. The owner of the cows is well known for sticking his animals on any empty bit of land. Complain to the mayor they said. Guess who is acting mayor?!)

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After ten years of various uses, it is now going to be a planter for all the herbs that love our heat but hate our clay

The bottom half is full of boulders dug out of the borders and veg beds and we've topped it off with a trailer load of broken roof tiles. They were free, rescued from a heap where they had been thrown off my neighbour's roof which is being replaced. I'll be topping it off with some weed matting and then a mix of broken down (I hope) turf, shop compost and a bag of gravel.

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The planned plants are a pair of prostrate rosemary plants at each end (I've taken cuttings from an ancient and now very pot bound one in a beautiful curved pot that I can't get it out from), lavender and then a load of different thymes, some to creep over the edges ...

Anything else I should be considering?

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Baths are great planters. I grow carrots in mine.

I have carrots in a baby bath!

PP, how about mint to stop it spreading?

Qurious to know why are you using weed matting? as for the pot bound rosemary try cutting it out with a small hand saw, or serrated kitchen knife, which would also give you more plants.

Thanks Spec but I fear the rosemary is beyond saving, but it will have to be cut out somehow so I don't lose the lovely pot! So we will see - I might end up with more than I know what to do with
The matting is just to provide something to hold the soil in place so that it doesn't all disappear between the cracks in the crock, but will still let the water through, and it is something that I have so won't have to buy!

I have mint in a old tin bucket, Veggie, although as I part burried the bucket it has escaped a bit.

Sage - as another evergreen, maybe a purple or variegated one as a contrast?

In summer you could grow Basil.

Chives - loads of uses plus its one of my earliest flowers among my herbs and encourages the bees to look into our garden frequently x

Basil and chives both thrive in the ground, thanks, but sage has always struggled. I'd forgotten that one!