Hello, it’s not been very long from my last blog but I felt I needed to write this one while it’s fresh in my mind.

I have been searching the internet for the past few years for recycled ideas for the garden and home. I have been using an online pin board to save my ideas and I’m glad I did. Mum has been having a few problems with the boiler in our family home and we had our plumber out to fix it temporarily till they could get the bit but about an hour after they had left it went completely kaput. We have no heating. Luckily the water is heated through an electric immersion heater and we have a few oil filled radiators and fan heaters (but I’m not taking the one out of my greenhouse, I’d rather be cold than let my plants die!)

I had seen an idea on the internet pin board where you can use terracotta pots and saucers to create a money saving and economic space heater. I thought this would be the perfect time to try it out!! I found the pin out and watched a quick video on how to make them. I didn’t waste any time. I went outside and found any smallish empty pots and cleaned them up. What I have made are very make shift as I didn’t have all the right gear to make them properly. Below shows you what pots I had.

I placed the saucer down and then 9 tea lights on the centre of the saucer and then the cooling rack on top. I didn’t light them straight away because I wanted to see how the pots sat on top first.

I added each pot on top carefully to see how they would sit on the cooling rack.

I had to wedge the largest pot on top of the two ‘legs’ of the cooling rack to give it enough gap around the base of the largest pot. I took them all off again and lit the candles and replaced the pots.

Mum and I had to do a little jiggling about with different candles because the tea lights unfortunately weren’t very good at staying a light and then when we did get candles that didn’t put themselves out, the smallest pot was still too wet from washing and not airy enough to let them get enough oxygen to keep lit. So, we decided to take the smallest pot out and leave the medium and large ones on there and it worked a treat!

Mum got our little pod barbecue out and put some candles in the bottom of that with one large pot on top of the griddle plate and that soon kicked out some heat ad we put another bell pot over a candle holder. The temperature raised by 0.5 degrees centigrade in about half an hour. It’s now 9 pm as I’m writing this and they have been lit for 5 hours and have been keeping our dining room warm.

I’m hoping to make some properly in the future to have as features and ornaments. They can be very effective and decorative if painted and hung properly. You could always use them as a greenhouse heater, providing CO2 and heat, if you don’t like the idea of using paraffin or having an electric supply put into your greenhouse or even as a gentle warmth on cool summers eve sat out in the garden after that delightful BBQ!

Smile,
Lesley 

Lesley Palmer

I’m a 23 year old female horticulturalist. I studied at Easton College for two years until June 2014 and became self employed providing garden care and design in North Norfolk. I currently care for around 20 gardens and have now achieved a few designs and a small landscaping project.

I am passionate about getting young people, especially primary schools, involved in gardening again. I have a project running to do with children’s gardening, so if you’d like to know more please get in touch! I began because of spending so much time in the garden with my granddad as a child. I was also a member of my primary school’s environment club.

I am a fan of Michael Perry and James Wong and I love finding out about edible flowers and how to live more independently from my own garden.