I’ve started the polycrub off with growing in canvas containers. We won’t have time to build and fill beds in there until next spring, and there isn’t much depth of soil beneath it before you hit the impenetrable seam of shale and lewissian gneiss.
I figured it was the best way of getting productive and a harvest this year.
They’re not expensive, a few pounds each, but when you’re using as many as I am it soon mounts up. So I put out a call via a couple of local friends for any unwanted large containers.
Friends at the newly established Coffee Bothy in Broadford offered up a dozen or more catering mayo tubs. A perfect size for herbs and smaller plants!
A couple of kind local crofters kept back their sheep lick tubs for me. They hold about 30 litres of soil or compost each so are deep enough for beans, potatoes or cucumbers to grow in.
We drilled drainage holes in them and I have been busy planting them up for the last few days. If it holds soil, it gets filled with seedlings! It’s best not to stand too still around here 😊.
This is such a busy season for planting. I feel that I’m running slightly late with things this year but it’s been so cold that the seedlings that I started early have been very slow to grow.
It’s always a balance here between waiting for the temperature to get warm enough but not leaving it so late that there isn’t enough season left for plants to mature.
Ravencroft Skye 
Love the recycling ♻️ brilliant idea! Your seedlings seem to love it too 🌱🌶 💚
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Thank you! Compost bags, old food tubs, farm feed tubs… I’m clearly living the good life here! 😊😘
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Good idea re: the tubs!
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If it doesn’t move and it will hold compost, it gets planted! 😂
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I often use recycled tubs and suchlike. It delays them going to waste and they are often stronger and sturdier than bought plastic pots. In an unpredictable climate like ours and with it becoming ever more unpredictable I think we all have your dilemma about when to start, when to plant out. Your short growing season must make it harder though.
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This is exactly how my bigger space would look if I had one. I reuse any plastic container that comes through my door. Everything from lemonade bottles to milk cartons get repurposed. Mushroom tand meat trays are great for starting off seedings, and I always keep a stash of large size yoghurt pots too. Excellent work!!!!
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Working with the rhythm of the seasons is the key, different each year, but always harmonious. I find I am not very musical myself, but I do appreciate the symphony of nature.
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Absolutely. Living up here on the windy croft we’re certainly much closer to the seasons ❤️
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