Fleece lined hanging basket

The fleece discarded from my sorting as being too weak or dirty for spinning has been put to use in the garden. The first job was using it to make up a hanging basket.

In a bucket scoop out enough compost to fill the basket and mix in some water retaining granules and slow release plant food. Obviously this is optional, but it helps when you forget to water the basket for a day or so later in the year (which I will).

Use the fleece to make a fairly thick layer covering the bottom of the hanging basket to about half way up the sides.

Add compost on top and the first layer of plants- the ones that poke out the side of the basket. I used fuschias for this, bought as plug plants. I have not used plugs before so hopefully these will give a nice display.


Add more fleece around the edges so that it reaches the top of the basket. Fill with the rest of the compost and add the plants for the top. These are some dwarf sweet peas grown from seed.



Water the basket well and either hang or store in the greenhouse away from frosts until the weather is nice enough for it to go outside.









It was suggested that birds might make off with the fleece for nesting material. As long as it is quite thick this should not be a problem and there will be other bits around the garden they can take. We have a bit of a shortage of birds in our garden, good for the berries in summer but it would be nice to see more of them.

Fleece sorting in the sunshine

This lovely weather has also given me an opportunity to sort a fleece that has been waiting since shearing last year.

I took the fleece out into the garden and spread it out, then armed with a clean bucket and a chair (appropriately patriotic for this week, but that was not intentional!) got to work.


The fleece was pulled into handfulls then the locks pulled out from each handful. A lock of sheep fleece looks like this:

It is a clump, usually stuck together at the top end and fluffier at the butt end which comes from closest to the body (it really is called that).

With this fleece I was really brutal, anything dirty or weak got put in the scrap pile. In the end that was probably about two thirds of the fleece, but I have other non spinning plans for that.

The next step will be to wash the locks to remove the dirt and grease, pictures of that to come soon.