Basket Makeovers - More Planting Up

Old flower pots seem to re-produce in our garden. There are times I think they do better at reproducing than the plants that were bought contained in them. Put a discreet stack of half a dozen or so behind the garden shed and within a season or two you are knee-deep in plastic pots. They are just one of the kinds of clutter I am trying to get under control. I was about to say you can't even give them away around here but I think I have come up with a way;  raise cuttings, plant them up in the proliferating pots and give them to the plant stall at the local charity garden fete. All I have to do is to make sure I buy fewer plants from said stall than those I donate.It is a rather insignificant drop in the tide however and apparently it is not helped by my habit of re-using other things as planters. And I have been doing just that again. I was trying to sort out the pile of  pots behind the shed when I happened to find a pair of aged baskets near the bottom of the stack.

Considering they had spent at least one winter exposed to the elements they were in fairly good shape I thought. May be they could give another season of use. I quite like the vintage look, even if it might owe more to artifice than age. Some things wear the patina of age with a certain charm but with these I thought there was far too much "shabby" and not enough "chic". Perhaps a light coat of paint would help, there was some not-quite-white matte left from redecorating the dining room.

Not bad, I thought. In fact the lower heart-shaped one  turned out so well it nearly got a fabric lining for something or other indoors but I had an idea for what I wanted to plant in that.

This campanula with its pretty starry blue flowers provides ground cover in several corners of the garden. I liked the idea of the blue with the white of the basket and the way that the heart-shaped leaves  would echo the shape of the container.
I lined it with weed suppressant sheeting.

I traced around the base of the basket onto the sheeting, added a border as wide as the basket was deep, cut it out and then cut through the border to the base shape as needed on the curves and the point so that the liner would sit smoothly inside the basket. You just never know when the skills for  cake tin lining and dress- making pattern cutting will come in handy, do you?
I have planted it up but it will need a while for the plants to take hold, fill out the gaps and flower.

As for the other basket with the handles, it was already lined in plastic. It most probably had some plants in it when it was given to me. This kind of planting is quite popular in supermarkets and garden centres but it is  not very plant friendly as the compost doesn't drain and it is difficult to judge how to water the plants properly without them either drying out or sitting in soggy compost. Yes, it means the container can be placed on furniture indoors without a tray or pot saucer underneath but I'm giving priority to plant welfare. This is why I used the weed suppressant membrane for the first basket..With that in mind, I poked some holes in the plastic lining the second basket to let it drain.
What could be more cheerful than a little basket of alpine strawberries?

They have been in the basket for a few weeks now and obviously like the conditions. Actually these might make good novelties for the plant stall - I will decide if I am prepared to part with them nearer the time. Meanwhile there is that stack behind the shed that hasn't been completely dealt with. I wonder if there is something else interesting in there.

The Daisy Chain Approach to Getting Things Done

I'm not greatly given to compiling To-Do lists, even though I know that ticking off the achieved tasks can be so gratifying. What happens to all those little things that need to be done but hardly warrant a place on a list? If I zealously write all of them down, the list becomes quite daunting, if not completely overwhelming. I find a less regimented approach works better for me - well, most of the time it does.
Each day has its priorities due to habit, occasion or the acceptance that procrastination has gone on for way too long. I suppose those priorities would be the backbone of a To-Do list if I was making one and then there are other things that I hope to fit in as opportunities arise. How does the list-free daisy chain work?

Imagine this:

Having established that the rest of the house is in order, you head into the kitchen. It is rather early to be making lunch but you know that there are lots of things that would make it all run much more smoothly later on, so you empty the dishwasher and clear all the work surfaces.
You notice that a banana peel has been set aside from breakfast. You know that snipping it to shreds and scattering under a rose bush is such a good idea because in the few years since you have been doing this, the roses have never flowered so abundantly. It is such a little job that won't take long.

 As you are scattering the shreds, you remember seeing some rather pernicious weeds around another rose and if you were to whip those out right now they could be put in the garden waste which is being collected today.
On your way back from the waste sack by  front gate you notice that there is enough rhubarb to harvest. The leaves can go in the compost bin so you track up the back garden to do that.
You notice on the way that the box bushes are overdue their annual 'haircut'. It has been  left until later this year waiting for the chance of an overnight frost to be past. Just then you notice a blackbird with a beakful of potential baby chick food. You have suspected they are nesting in the garden and you settle down to watch where the bird is heading as it may mean that an occupied box bush will have to wait until the baby birds have fledged before being trimmed. It takes a few food runs to establish which bush it is as the parent doesn't fly straight to the nest but cunningly diverts through other shrubs.

You then notice that some tulips in a tub should be dead-headed and that the tub is rather dry - in fact all the outdoor pots and tubs need water on what is set to be a warm sunny day. Several watering can runs later you then think that the cuttings that have been sheltering on the conservatory window sill could be outdoors now so you go to bring them out.

You look up and notice the clock on the conservatory wall seems to be very fast. Now that really will need adjusting as you rely on that when you are pottering about outside. Just then a voice at your elbow says "Ahem. You haven't forgotten that we have someone coming to lunch, have you? You know he will be right on time." (Oh, so that really is the time!)
"Of course not." Your voice trails over your shoulder as you try to make a hasty sprint to the kitchen look like a nonchalant stroll.

So what is really going on here? A butterfly brain at play, displacement behaviour or serial distraction? In this instance it was probably nothing more complicated than finding excuses reasons for staying in the garden on the warmest day of the year so far. Drawn as a diagram would it be a mind map or a flow chart? I like to think of it as a daisy chain.
And yes, lunch worked out just fine with everything on the table on time.