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 