Forum home Talkback
This Forum will close on Wednesday 27 March, 2024. Please refer to the announcement on the Discussions page for further detail.

ideas

Got a lovely metal milk churn which I would like to use in the garden, any suggestions for which plants to put  in please?

«13

Posts

  • I would use a pot inserted in the neck of the milk churn - don't fill the whole churn up with compost - that way you can ring the changes seasonally and it'll be much easier to renew compost/feed/pot on as needed image


    Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.





  • Busy-LizzieBusy-Lizzie Posts: 24,032

    Don't forget to put drainage holes in the bottom. I fill my posts with earth and compost to about 3/4 then just compost in the top 1/4. I only ever change the top bit when I replant.

    As milk churns are tall it would be nice to have something that falls down over the sides too. Depends on whether you want annuals or perennials and what your personal taste is. Also where you are placing the pot, sun or shade.

    Dordogne and Norfolk. Clay in Dordogne, sandy in Norfolk.
  • Dovefromabove - yes I also thought of inserting a pot in the top of the churn rather than filling the whole churn with soil/compost, and I agree that changing the pot with the seasons is the best way to display the churn so that it looks at it's best.  Thanks for all the helpful hints Busy-Lizzie - I think I will put the churn in a sunny place (when we get some sun), but I won't be putting any drainage holes in the base if I can get away with just emptying the excess water every now and then.

  • chickychicky Posts: 10,409

    I don't have drainage holes in mine - I do as Dove suggested and sit a plastic plant pot in it so that it catches and sits on the rim - that way the bottom of the pot is about 2 foot away from any water that collects in the bottom of the churn.  I do empty it out regularly though, but more because I worry that water freezing in the base might split the churn image

    i used my usual cascade of lobelia this year, and have a few strands of ivy growing now.  

  • FairygirlFairygirl Posts: 55,117

    I'd do exactly as Dove suggests. It's something I do here-  you can have bulbs for winter/spring, then annuals if you like those - millions to choose from - or a grass like Hackenochloa, and finally a little evergreen for the winter months. I've used Carex oshimensis Evergold to good effect in a tall pot, but there are compact Hebes, or Box cones or balls, or little conifers etc which will do a good job during dreary weather. They can look very attractive with frost or snow on them too. image

    I tried inserting a pot inside my Dad's big hefty ceramic container, which is impossible to drill holes in. Filled up with rainwater far too quickly...image

    It's a place where beautiful isn't enough of a word....



    I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
  • At a previous house I used to have antique chimney pots either side of the front door - a inexpensive winter planting which worked well was small-leaved trailing variegated ivies under-planted with several layers of sky-blue grape hyacinths. 

    The ivy looked elegant throughout the winter (at Christmas I'd hang little red glass balls etc among the ivy) and then, in early spring the grape hyacinths burst up like an amazing blue powder puff - these lasted for several years with minimum care.  After the flowers were over I'd take the pots and put them in a quiet corner and give them a few feeds of tomato fertiliser then when the leaves died down I'd give the pots a small dose of Fish Blood and Bone and move them to a shady area where the ivies looked good with the ferns etc.  I'd just make sure that the compost didn't dry out. They'd stay there until November when I'd tidy up the ivy with a pair of scissors and put the pots back in the chimneys.

    In the summer there I'd chop and change the style of plantings - the usual pink pelargoniums and trailing lobelias some years, and other years an eruption of trailing nasturtiums tumbling down and falling in a flowery foam at the foot of the chimneys (that sounds like an attack of the Nigellissimas image).


    Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.





  • Busy-LizzieBusy-Lizzie Posts: 24,032

    That all sounds lovely.

    Dordogne and Norfolk. Clay in Dordogne, sandy in Norfolk.
Sign In or Register to comment.