The times they are a-changin’ (and our garden gear reflects that)
Most of us have had that old auntie or grandparent with their bag-of-bags hung on the back of their pantry door, a bulging plastic evidence of shopping trips. Though in truth I, too, have amassed a sizable collection of both plastic and kraft paper shopping bags. And I use them!
Whether I am bagging up cat litter in the bags from cereal boxes or using the plastic grocery sacks to contain and transport give-away plants or employing the paper ones to store dried herbs, I find them all very useful. I even use the heavy plastic bags that contain potting soil or other garden supplies to line my compost area to help keep the roots of nearby shrubs from sapping that supply of nutrients. And while I understand the problems they do create, I am jealously hoarding my cache of all those bags, because I know their days are numbered.
But the disappearance of plastic grocery sacks from many of our favorite stores is not the only difference we gardeners will be experiencing in the days to come.
Millions upon millions of plastic nursery pots and six-packs end up in landfills every year. Of course, many of us reuse and repurpose some of them. But the fact is that those toxic plastics can sit for years upon years in landfills, increasing pollution and harming local soils, eco systems and entire communities. In fact, it takes many thousands of years for one plastic planter to break down and decompose all the way.
But at least one of our major bedding and perennial plant and shrub producers is on the case when it comes to plastic pots. Proven Winners (provenwinners.com) is introducing an Eco+grande container. This unique pot is compostable, 100% plant product. This innovative new pot has “plant nutrients built into the walls of the pot!” That means nutrients are supplied to the plant directly from its container.
Pull tabs at the bottom edges of the pots can be removed to “facilitate strong root development,” and then the pot can either be removed or planted directly into the soil. Proven Winners says over time the containers “break down and become inert organic compounds and they contain no micro-plastics or additional waste by-products.”
Proven Winners is also on top of another hot-button issue these days: climate change, with a series of heat-tolerant bedding plants to be debuted next spring. Visit provenwinners.com/learn/ how-plant/some-it-hot. The list is long and includes plants with extreme drought tolerance, heat-tolerant plants with good drought tolerance and heatloving plants that need water.
No space to garden? No problem, plant developers have caught on to the fact that a lot of folks want to grow their own foods. They want to experience the independence of gardening and be able to produce organically-grown vegetables for themselves. Panamerican Seed (panamseed.com) has developed a group of plants – called Kitchen Minis – which includes vegetables to answer that need to grow. Look for the Siam F1 Tomato developed to grow and be harvested from inside on a sunny kitchen window or counter or outside on a patio table. Also in the new collection are pepper varieties.
Last summer, my tomato plants went wild and nearly took over an adjacent bed. The flimsy wire tomato “cages” that seemed so right at the beginning of the season when those seedling plants went into the ground, ended up crashing during a summer rainstorm. Those lusty tomatoes just continued to grow over the top of the blueberry bushes. Not wanting to jeopardize my tomato crop as huge tomatoes hung heavy, I just let them have at it.
But I vowed that next time would be different. I’d erect something sturdy right off. It looks as if the answer to my issue has come along. A company called Thriving Design (thrivingdesign.com) has a line of strong and reusable C-bite garden clips that can transform standard garden stakes into sturdy plant supports. They can be used to construct a variety of plant support systems that can be easily and quickly dismantled for storage at the end of the season. No more struggling with and storing those flimsy and unwieldy tomato cages. Just unclip and disassemble them for storage at the end of the season.
And now after fall cleanup is done, my arms are mostly healed from all the scrapes and bruises from getting poked with sticks or scraped with thorns. Those “garden injuries” are another
thing I have promised myself that I will avoid next time. I see a pair of Farmers Defense sleeves in my future (farmersdefense.com). The poly-spandex fabricblend sleeves are made to protect gardeners and farmers as they work. They also protect from plant irritation or rashes, block harmful UV rays with UPF 50+ protection and are sweat wicking and cooling.
I find all of these new products to be creative approaches and helpful solutions for issues important to anyone who gardens. Not simply gimmicks or useless do-dads, they represent thoughtful additions to our arsenal of gardening supplies. And just in case you needed a nudge, any of these items would make great holiday gifts for your favorite gardener.
Lynette L. Walther is the Gardencomm Gold medal winner for writing, a five-time recipient of the Gardencomm Silver Medal of Achievement, the National Garden Bureau’s Exemplary Journalism Award and she is the author of “Florida Gardening on the Go.” She is a member of Gardencomm and the National Garden Bureau.