metal garden planters Archives | The British Craft House

Posted on 02/05/202030/05/2023 by Fiona — Leave a comment

Summer is coming ….maybe

Unprecedented times, furlough, words about 8 weeks ago we had never considered to be part of our everyday life, supermarket queues, the world taking up baking leading to an unnormally high demand for flour of all varieties.

It has amazed me the number of people who have decided to take up gardening, me included! I currently have various ? salad leaves, radish, basil, peppers, mustard, plus some forget-me-nots and pansies popping up … it is also great for home schooling (I am not good at being a teacher, I get too ratty far too quickly, but I think that is because my little darlings know how to annoy me in the hopes I give up and they can drift back to the various game machines they have) but at least one them has been very involved in preparing, planting, and watering so I will take that as a small win 🙂

: Grey Metal Planted Planter

Posted on 17/02/202030/05/2023 by Fiona — Leave a comment

Winter is slowing creeping away as Spring gathers pace

I have to confess the weather of late has been confusing, from a cloud burst of snow one afternoon, clear blue skies followed less than 24 hours later, chasing its tail the howling gales and flash floods across the country, it’s cold enough to be winter, but the bright blue skies suggest a different story.
So what plants, bulbs, or seedlings can you realistically look at panting whilst the weather is so up and down?

To answer this question it does also depend on a many other factors, including but not limited too the PH levels of your soil, whether you live in a sheltered area or are fully exposed on a cliff top , availability of a greenhouse or somewhere light warm and airy, essentially draught free to give a few answers.
February gardening is all about getting the seeds planted, so get out your old planters and scrape off the top layer of compost and replace with fresh. Seed wise you can sow lettuces in readiness for fresh leaves in May June time, but do ensure they are protected, varieties such as Winter Gem, and Valdor are good winter hardy types but do make sure you plant under cloches

As a general rule, bulbs can be planted out as well, but do remember they tend to prefer light well draining soil, if they are left in wet, heavy soil they are unlikely to thrive. So you can consider broad beans, carrots, parsnips, beetroot, cabbages.
If you are lucky enough to have a greenhouse herb seeds, tomatoes, cucumber can get a good start.

I have started to list a few deeper, larger metal garden planters, these were specifically designed to enable the rooftop or patio gardener to have access to deeper soil thus enabling root vegetables to be sown. grown and eaten from the single metal garden planter. So if you fancy one do let me know!
Fi

Posted on 26/11/201930/05/2023 by Fiona — Leave a comment

Welcome!

I just thought whilst I was photographing, listing, measuring and generally sorting what planters and window boxes I have made it would be a nice idea to introduce myself properly.

This is my world of Metal Garden Planters.

Welcome, my name is Fiona, I have 2 children (12 and 9) 1 mini dachshund and an OAP Cat who thinks he is a teenager still. I live in the town of Grantham in Lincolnshire, famous for being voted the most boring town in the UK one year, being the birth place of myself, Margaret Thatcher, Doris Stokes and Sir Isaac Newton to name a few.

The image is of me, no makeup, not having done my hair and dressed for the cold, about to set off in my VW Flatbed, with some roofing sheets on the back. I sell a variety of Box Profile and Corrugated roofing sheets, and manufacture the flashings to finish the edges in house. It was from the waste I was generating in terms of making the flashings which lead me down the path of making metal boxes.

I was on the hunt for an office bin one day, and the cost shocked me, let alone the fact they are all fairly boring looking so after some cutting, measuring, and general faffing with the Guilloline (not the kind the Frenchman used to lop off the heads of Aristocracy) but a blade which can cut thin metal sheeting safely, and my bending machine (its clamp with a lever that once lifted puts a fold in a metal sheet in its simplest form) A bright yellow tall, square bin was created, and 6+ years later it is still used daily.

So thats how I started, if you have any specific questions for future blog posts I would be happy to answer them, in the meantime I will continue selecting troughs, and planters along with a special gardeners gift pack I am pulling together.