Urban Gardening: Bad Information At Retail

The Earth Box from the Garden Center is great for those who want a simple, low-maintenance herb garden.

The "Earth Box" in the photo is not the brand name EarthBox. It's the Garden Patch Grow Box, but that's not the most egregious error in this article.

The most damaging inaccuracies are the opinions about clay pots (see below). If you're comparing clay pots versus SIPs for growing any vegetables including herbs, it is simply no contest.

SIPs will out-produce clay pots every time while conserving valuable water and time. Open your mind to SIPs and you can easily prove all this to yourself. Incidentally, it's easy to convert clay pots into SIPs. I had many of them growing plants outdoors in San Diego, including Bamboo and Plumeria. More about that in a future post.

The quality of horticultural advice at retail is abominable, but that unfortunately is generically true of our national horticultural education.

If we don't reform our horticultural education, we are clearly in danger of losing yet another technology based industry to companies like Valcent and other international companies. We are simply not keeping up in the field of urban food production.

Oh well, not to worry, it's only about our economy and new jobs.

via www.mysanantonio.com

There are two types of containers to choose from: plastic or clay. The decision can be made on aesthetics, price and efficiency.

"We usually recommend clay over plastic," said Wendy Meyer of Shades of Green Nursery. "It's difficult to find well-done plastic pots that look good."

But unlike their plastic counterparts, clay pots can get pricey; a fancy, glazed clay pot costs as much as $100, according to Wayne Harrell of the Garden Center.

Lyn Belisle, Web master for the San Antonio Herb Society, recommends using clay containers because they hold moisture better and keep soil temperature steady. But Belisle also suggests having fun with containers and thinking outside the pot.

"I've see herb gardens in sinks, cowboy boots, baskets, colorful tin cans and even a colander lined with moss," she said.

Comments

[Toni Fay]

WWW.Plantgreensolutions.com for a service offering pre-planted vegetable sub-irrigated gardens NY.