I am feeling very pleased with myself as, this year, I seem to be doing some jobs at the right time - not all in a rush at the last minute - or even late!
With the wet weather we've had over the last week or so there's been little chance to work on the plot. So I've done several jobs around the house and in the workshop, but I've also done a fair amount of cleaning old pots and labels. This is a job I hate but I've managed to make it bearable - as well as effective.
Recently I found a pot brush in the shape of a small toilet brush which I find much better at cleaning the inside of pots. The normal kitchen pot brush in the shape of a roundish scrubbing brush with a long handle, takes alot of dexterity to get into the corners of the square pots I prefer using, but the 'toilet' brush does so with just a twist of the wrist.
I set myself up with a bucketful of warm water (I'm a real softy!) with a dash of detergent and a dash of Jeyes Fluid in it and drop a stack of pots into it to soften the dirt. Then it is just a matter of a twirl of the brush inside the top one and then a rub over the outside of the bottom one before taking the bottom one off the stack and adding it to the top of the stack until the whole stack is done. Routine and boring but, with the radio on, I get alot done and can be sure each pot is clean.
Cleaning labels is a similar job. Most of the time I use sections cut from some old venetian blinds but I do use some large labels I have bought at great expense! I have finally returned to writing labels with a soft pencil as the only way that remains readable through the season. Cleaning the old labels is hard work but I have found a spray of, of all things, some old caravan cleaner (any other strong anionic detergent would do) and a scrub with a Scotchbright removes all the old writing. After a quick scrub of both sides, using a piece of an old plastic cutting sheet as protection for the work surface, they are then dropped into a pot of the pot-cleaning solution to make sure there is no chance of transferring diseases etc.
The biggest problem is drying everything!
With the wet weather we've had over the last week or so there's been little chance to work on the plot. So I've done several jobs around the house and in the workshop, but I've also done a fair amount of cleaning old pots and labels. This is a job I hate but I've managed to make it bearable - as well as effective.
Recently I found a pot brush in the shape of a small toilet brush which I find much better at cleaning the inside of pots. The normal kitchen pot brush in the shape of a roundish scrubbing brush with a long handle, takes alot of dexterity to get into the corners of the square pots I prefer using, but the 'toilet' brush does so with just a twist of the wrist.
I set myself up with a bucketful of warm water (I'm a real softy!) with a dash of detergent and a dash of Jeyes Fluid in it and drop a stack of pots into it to soften the dirt. Then it is just a matter of a twirl of the brush inside the top one and then a rub over the outside of the bottom one before taking the bottom one off the stack and adding it to the top of the stack until the whole stack is done. Routine and boring but, with the radio on, I get alot done and can be sure each pot is clean.
Cleaning labels is a similar job. Most of the time I use sections cut from some old venetian blinds but I do use some large labels I have bought at great expense! I have finally returned to writing labels with a soft pencil as the only way that remains readable through the season. Cleaning the old labels is hard work but I have found a spray of, of all things, some old caravan cleaner (any other strong anionic detergent would do) and a scrub with a Scotchbright removes all the old writing. After a quick scrub of both sides, using a piece of an old plastic cutting sheet as protection for the work surface, they are then dropped into a pot of the pot-cleaning solution to make sure there is no chance of transferring diseases etc.
The biggest problem is drying everything!
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