Kitchen Garden Forum

Having read Sarah Raven's veg book I thought I would try salad in containers and the biggest success has been using wall baskets on the side of the house under a slight overhang.After the mini-daffs come out I usually fill with trailing geraniums but I lost them to the cold this year so in went some seedling lettuce,some hearting and some loose leaf,one called 'bronze arrowhead'from Real Seeds has been very good.
I keep sowing little and often so I have replacements to hand for topping up.
Are house walls an underated facility for veg growing?
What do you grow on yours?

Sounds like a great idea Carole. At least slugs and snails won't be able to get to them. (unless they're related to Chris Bonnington) I grow mine in normal containers which are all on top of a large galvanized coal bunker. I've found that the dreaded slugs and snails won't climb the metal sides. Hole free lettuce!!!

we always seem to have at least 2 or 3 snails 6 foot or higher on our walls.
Pete

I've seen snails high in the branches of a friend's laburnam and trails at least twelve foot high, but I don't think slugs climb like that, so at least you should be safe from them.

We have very deep window sills, as the stone house walls are a good twenty inches deep and have found them perfect for semi-hardy seedlings and cuttings, inside to start then outside to harden off. I hadn't thought to put salad stuff there, it would be so handy, I'll give it a go.

I think you are right about snails and slugs not liking zinc i.e. gavanized metal. The usual repellant mentioned is copper. I am thinking of making a large bed slugproof and galvanized mesh is going to be cheaper than sheet metal. It's available in large rolls from the local petshop, sold for animal cages.
Allan