Gardening

[Richard]

No seahermit, don't eat the flowers!
If instead you charge a small fee for viewing you should then be able to afford to buy food at the supermarket and if you put up a small notice letting people know that otherwise you may have to eat the flowers they might be encouraged to throw coins into a suitable receptacle nearby.
Street-begging with a twist...
At least it improves the environment and is not supporting a bad habit!

[seahermit]

I suppose I should be inventive and invite visitors to tour the "Smallest patio garden on earth" - it would be a different take (a good salesman can put a spin on anything!) and they might take pity on my madness and drop me a few pence ..

I am just slightly worried about the pots going missing in the night. Where I am in a cul-de-sac seems a bit safer and plant pots in neighbouring streets seem to be left alone by the pilferers and no-gooders of St Leonards. See how it goes ...

I was waiting for a bus in Havelock Road last night and the tramps and beggars were swarming around the pub/Nat West bank like hornets. One was so drunk he could hardly stay upright .. but still asking people for a pound!

I'm glad to be well away from that horrible area.

[Richard]

"I was waiting for a bus in Havelock Road last night and the tramps and beggars were swarming around the pub/Nat West bank like hornets."
I appreciate the simile, seahermit, (and the U.S. gangster overtones) at least the really skanky beggars on the pavement outside Mr Bean's at the bottom of Queens road seem to be attracting daytime Police attention lately.
Perhaps like the litter bins, the tramps along the main road need curbing (pun) to present a good public image.
The ones along the backstreets can get on with it, just as they wish...

[seahermit]

Shrubs don't like Hastings water!

Well .. some of them. I never thought about it before but I went up to the big Perryhill nursery at Hartfield, west of Tunbridge Wells (nice one and charming staff) and was advised that acid-loving plants don't thrive on the hard tap water of the south coast. I need to garner other opinions, see if the problem is critical, but it looks as if I can't put a big colourful azalea outside in a tub - several other options are out too.

I don't have ways of gathering rainwater, so back to the drawing board. I have a few ideas left for some showy evergreen foliage through winter (love the hands-like Fatsia if I can stop it reaching 8ft. high!). But all this is proving more complex than I reckoned on!

[seahermit]

It's all coming on and I'm rather enjoying myself. There will be more tubs and I want the eventual look to be as if nature is invading!

Does anyone have recommendations about where to get bulbs? There are countless suppliers on the internet, the only really well-constructed website I like at the moment is Crocus.co.uk - gives essential basic info and helpful tips more or less instantly, just type in the plant you are looking for. But no idea which companies people use.

I want things like Colchicum (Autumn Crocus), winter-blooming Cyclamens, Winter Aconites. I also love Christmas Roses.

[seahermit]

Besides the Celosias, there's now an evergreen Choisya (to make the winter less dismal) and a trailing Geranium - it goes everywhere I gather.

[seahermit]

Just had one of the best compliments about my talents which has been paid to me for years! A nice couple who bought the house next door (to rent out) are enthusiastic about my celosias and have offered me a job as a "minder" - if they copy me and put some plant-tubs outside their front door!

Anyone else want a part-time gardener/shrub minder/"plant-sitter" (there must be a correct term)? Maybe I have the opportunity here for a business start-up!

No, I don't really have time for that, but it shows the difference a few colourful plants can make to an area and how it cheers people up.