Before I had a lotty (oh, how deprived and sad I was in those days) I grew runners in a large square pot - about 1.5ftx1.5ft and deep. Did a frame of four canes and grew eight plants up it - was a good success that too - had some good beans off it

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think toms might be too difficult if I'm not well enough to water them for a week or something;

Hey Juliet - I grew toms this year in pots and stood them in metal cake tins, tupperware tubs, 1 litre margarine tubs, an ordinary plastic bucket! etc - anything a few inches deep - then when I went on hols I filled em up full with water and they stayed wet for a few days at a time (saved my mum staggering round with a watering can). If you make sure they're not under the overhang of your roof, they get the full benefit of any rain too. They get saturated, but I think they'd be fine in very wet compost for short periods when you can't water every day. I'm not sure what illness yuo have, but would tumblers up in hanging baskets near a door or window that you pass frequently be any help?

Heh. I dropped an idea into the staffroom the other day after spotting yet another huge bag of bought, chlorine-washed lettuce in the fridge, taking up half the space.

I wondered why on earth we don't get window boxes to attach to the outside of the staffroom, where someone leaning out the window can easily water and tend them, but which can grow cut-and-come-again lettuce or a mixture?

Needless to say, everyone was gobsmacked, and then started saying 'but you'd get upset if we forgot to water them and they died!'

Oh dear, they know me all too well...

moonbells

Juliet I meant won't be growing dwarf beans in the ground on the lotty as they just get swamped. So they'll be in a raised bed or a pot

Ah - R will be pleased - he'll be able to sit down after all

I also started off stuck in a pot then graduated to rubbish bins before finally getting a plot all of my own then two!

Potatoes in a rubbish bin was always the best and then the whole dustbin of potato filled compost went into the garage for lucky dipping through the winter and then the used compost went on the flower beds.

Unbelievably since I got the plot the rubbish bins are only used for rubbish

Juliet - this may seem like an odd question, but have you ever hurt your spine or neck in a fall?

The only other folk I know with ME have had bad falls or accidents (horse and motorbike) and after a long discussion once with the worse case (he's totally unable to do anything now - the COX-2 inhibitors gave him most of his life back... and then a heart attack... so he's now worse than before poor love) we thought there might be something in it. Signalling failure or the like.

*hugs*

moonbells

Also Juliet, you can gorw chillies and peppers and aubergines and things inside on windowsills