Over the past few years we’ve had some building work done on our house. Unfortunately it took longer than expected, so in the thousand years that the builder was with us I built up quite a stock of expectation about what I could do when the world righted itself. I also built up a stock of surplus household fittings for one reason or another. One of those was a large bath that had been relegated to the back garden due to it having a chip out of the side. A new one was delivered but we kept hold of the old one as I figured it would make a pretty good plant pot.

Then a little while ago one of my neighbours very kindly popped over with a load of strawberry plants. She’d planted them out and they’d run wild so she was trying to get rid of a few. I was over the moon and decided to plant them in the bath. I put the bath on a few bricks to raise it for drainage and then started to fill it with bits of masonry and bricks, polystyrene and compost, anything really that I could hide in the bottom of the bath rather than taking to the tip.

I planted the strawberry plants in the bath and covered it over with netting so the birds couldn’t get to it and I’m pleased to say that, despite all the rain we’ve been having, the strawberries are thriving. We’ve been picking quite a few of them and we even made ice-cream with them. The raspberries are all starting to ripen too so it’s mixed berries for pudding.

I also found a butler sink going cheap that I’ve put to good use as an outside sink underneath the outside tap. It’s perfect for sitting pots in when they need a good soaking and for filling up so the children can do some of the watering for me, though they seem to prefer using the hose so they can soak each other.

To finish off the set I somehow ended up with not one but two toilets that weren’t needed. One of them had a crack in it but the other was just surplus. Now I know builders, friends and loved ones all think I’m nuts but I quite fancy using these unusual porcelain pots in the garden. I’ve been trying to decide what to put in them and where to put them in the garden. I did consider planting my Jerusalem artichokes in them but didn’t think it would be palatable to eat a tuber that was wrested from a u-bend so now I’m thinking maybe alpines might work but if anyone has any suggestions please let me know.

Thanks,
Lisa