Vitamin Green

I read about cloches on the You Grow Girl website. A cloche can be thought of as a bell-shaped mini-greenhouse that gardners use to protect plants from frost, insect or rodent attacks, provide additional humidity or general protection for plants until they are able to look after themselves.

I’ve been having trouble with field rats that seem to enjoy feasting on the roots of my baby plants. I thought this was an innovative solution to keeping the rats out till the plants are able to look after themselves. Of-course, these are made from recycled soft drink bottles and have all the positives mentioned in our previous post.

These are really easy to make. Take a pointy-tipped  serrated knife and poke a hole in the bottle about an inch or so above the base. Slide the knife in and cut the bottle all around so that the bottom comes away. Using scissors you can neaten the cut edge to remove all traces of clumsiness. And that’s it! Your cloche’s ready to use. Use larger 5 or 10 litre bottles for bigger plants.

We’re always on the lookout for ways in which everyday things can be reused instead of being discarded after a single use.

While walking through the riverine island of Chorao, I came across a house where someone had very cleverly re-purposed used soft-drink bottles as plant containers in an elegant composition on a low wall. One was designed like a hanging basket and was used to grow mint! A third design (not in the photos) was a simple one where the top had been cut-off to make a 6″-8″ deep, tall container and it had the shorter variety of sanseviera (mother-in-law’s tongue) growing in it.

I like this idea because one can create a colourful array (some soft-drink bottles have attractive stickers that can be kept on) of containers at no extra cost, and more importantly, by not bringing new goods into your consumption basket. While I’m not a big fan of bottled soft-drinks, I could just as easily run to my local bhangarwala (recycler) and buy these from Re.1 to Rs. 10 a piece, depending on the size.

Put in a friend’s favourite plant and this makes a great little gift. These containers can also be used to germinate seeds before you put them out in the open.

If you live in an aparment, gardening has its own set of challenges. But you’ll be astounded at what can be achieved even with severe space restrictions. Window boxes, small pots and planters are enough for you to start a small kitchen garden.

For ideas on how you can start your own container garden, have a look here.

From Apartment Therapy