Gardening With Autopot

This week I have decided to dedicate my blog to the wonders of gardening with AutoPot. Don't get me wrong I love my soil gardens but I have discovered a very happy balance between gardening in the soil and gardening in my AutoPots with the added bonus of making good use of our hothouse.

I'm sure many of you will agree that as gardeners we are all trying to beat the system some way or another, by planting summer veg either late in the hope we can savour those tasty delights much later into the season and of coarse again in the spring when we want to have our first summer veg dished up on our plates a few weeks earlier than our neighbours. That all said and done, to a large degree mother nature will continue to control this AND further more continue to teach some of us, gardening is about patience. Back in January I planted a tomato seedling that was growing randomly up through the stones in the hot house, I figured if it is tough enough to poke its head up without as much as a drop of food or water it is tough enough to plant now and see how far through winter I can take it. And boom already it has fruit and plenty of flower, using the combination of growing in an AutoPot and in the hot house I am looking forward to tomatoes in May!!! Keeping with the AutoPot theme , I have made room to move my eggplant back into the hot house at the first sign of cooler temperatures, Growing eggplant in the AutoPot this year has been a breeze, loads of fruit already with more to come, problem is I only have a couple of recepies to use so feel free to email me your favorites.

Outside in a shady place I have planted a few spinach plants, they prefere a cooler growing enviroment so as the tempreture drops off a bit I know my perpetual spinach will take off and growing them in the AutoPot means I can shift them into a warmer place as winter sets in. Four plants will be more than enough for juicing and cooking with for the two of us. You will see in the image that one pot I have used clayballs and the other coir fibre. By using the clayballs I can easily re use them once the plant has finished, so in the long run it is a more sustainable option for growing in. Watercress and mescilun are my next options for planting then this will give me a good mixture of greens once I have finshed with beans and zucchini. Give AutoPot a try this Autum, you will be amazed at how much you can produce.