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View From The Potting Shed
Mainly my Koi pond actually, fronted by a few hardy banana plants and a Hamburg grapevine trying to get in at the window of the potting shed. Actually, it’s not much of a potting shed, more a studio room really with a triple glazed roof on the southerly aspect. This, and the heating, makes it ideal for over wintering tender plants and bringing on early crops for transplanting to the allotment later.
Unfortunately, the room wasn’t finished, so I only recently got round to trying out one of my Christmas presents – a Nether Wallop Trading Company Paper Potter. This ingenious device turns strips of old newspaper into biodegradable planting pots for transplanting seedlings. To make a pot you tear off a strip of paper about 8cm (3in) wide and 57cm (22in) long, wrap it around the wooden former, fold underneath and press into the base to secure. Dead easy, a few minutes work produced dozens of pots ready to be filled with the Brussels sprout plants I had started off in a seed tray. The newspaper holds together surprisingly well even when wet, so next time I might try sowing directly into the pots.
I was so impressed with this product I contacted the company to see what other products they did and ended up with a Potting Shed Collection and a Cutting String Stand. The former contains all those odd tools which make planting and sowing easier – a calibrated dibber, a dibblet, a pot tamper (badly named as it is for pressing soil in seed trays), a garden line and of course a Paper Potter. They are all beautifully made of turned wood (FSC approved) and look almost too good to get dirty but they also work really well and should last for many years. The Cutting String Stand shares the good looks of the other items and comes complete with a large ball of green organic jute. The clever thing about this stand is that it incorporates a cutting blade in the top, which means you can cut lengths of twine without the need for a knife or scissors. “So what?”, I hear you cry, but I always find I’m struggling to hold up a tomato plant with one hand when I need string, which makes potential single-handed operation a great plus.
In PM47 I reviewed some of the superb tools from Joseph Bentley which have been outstandingly popular. To add to the range I have been using a Stainless Steel Hand Tool Set, which consists of a trowel, fork and a transplanting trowel. Like the other tools they are well balanced, solidly built and a real pleasure to use. They have a manufacturer’s five year guarantee and I can’t recommend them too highly.
John Adams
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Nether Wallop Paper Potter
Nether Wallop String Stand
Nether Wallop Potting Shed Collection
Joseph Bentley Hand Tool Set
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