Thursday, March 12, 2015

Slow Start and the NooCity Growbed






The winter can be quite harsh on plants and their containers. This isn’t a new revelation I have had by any means; it’s just a thought after looking at some photos of a canvas bag I planted up with annuals last year. The aforementioned bag is sitting in the old pea bed looking very sorry for itself. The handle frayed and everything else went mouldy as the geraniums rotted.  I’ve grown to love this distressed look though because if I didn’t I would be driven mad trying to maintain everything to its original state. My wicker wall baskets are dropping to bits and the metal containers are all rusting. But you know what? I’m just going to plant them up again this year and I’ll bet they will look great (well, to me anyway).  I sort of feel that anyone can buy new looking garden containers but to have something that has been aged and matured in the Irish winter has a special charm and is full of character. You just can’t buy that (well you could if you wanted to buy my rotting canvas bag)

Disagreement
I caused a bit of a furore on my facebook page the other day when I posted a picture of some succulents growing in books. Holes had been cut into the covers and pages removed to form a circle large enough for some soil and a plant or two. The covers were painted with wood glue and were very decorative and worthy of being put on the dining room table as a centrepiece. Others disagreed and thought the idea of using books and not having them on shelves so you could read them was a disgrace. It’s divided the gardening community.

More Ideas
I think you could put a plant almost anywhere. I particularly like the idea of putting flowering specimens in old paint cans that have dripping paint going down the sides. The flowers could be chosen to match or compliment the colour of the tin. How about old chandeliers, used and broken kitchen sieves, speakers, old ties, trousers fastened at the legs, empty chocolate boxes, empty snail shells…. I could go on as the list is endless. All I know is that come the growing season all of those unruly looking containers will be a fabulous addition to the garden.

Slow Start
I still haven’t ordered any seeds from Klaus this year. I haven’t even thought what I am going to be growing. It’s not apathy or neglect; I’m trying to be patient. Over the years I have watched my seedlings and found that the ones I plant later in the season seem to do better and have less pest and disease. I’m pleased I am not in the position of growing for the public and having to grow things in heated propagators, it’s very time consuming. My main priority is to get the beds ready for when things have warmed up enough for me to plant directly outside. This year I am taking the very “Lazy Gardening” approach and looking forward to just sitting and relaxing. I have yet to sit for more than 2 minutes in the garden before I find jobs to do, but this year I am going to stretch that out by at least another 8 minutes so that I can have 10 minutes of relaxation. Oh the pleasure.






Growbed
There is a new product coming onto the market this year. It’s got  going by means of Indiegogo, which is the same as a Kickstarter project. It’s a small raised bed made from canvas with a solid plastic frame. The raised bed, called NooCity Growbed has a drainage area at the bottom and their unique selling point is that it has a worm bin in the middle of the bed. The kitchen compost is put into this and watered. The worms digest  the food and the resulting liquid feed is taken up by the plant roots. So far they have raised €40,000 so manufacturing will begin shortly. The 125cm beds will retail at around €130. The makers say that the beds are ideal for the urban landscape as they can be put up on balconies and rooftops.  I might invest in one for the craic and see if it works.  . It all sounds great and I am sure they will be using canvas much more suited to the job than my rotting bag in the pea bed



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