Step by Step Bag Garden

The literature and video from Send A Cow give clear instructions for how to construct a bag garden. Here's the picture of how I made mine (with help).

It all starts with a coarse hessian sack with some gravel in the bottom.



Next, you take a tin can which you open both ends to make a tube. The can is placed in the centre of the sack and filled to the brim with more gravel.



Then you pack the area between the sack and the can with compost (I used a mixture of stuff from our heap and some bought from the ironmonger in the village). Once you are almost level with the top of the can, you wiggle the can up until it is a hollow tube once again, taking care not to pull it right out so that compost can creep into the cylinder of gravel. You fill the can with gravel again and then add more compost around it.



You end up with something like this which is ready for planting. So far I have just planted the top surface of my bag. Later this month, when there is no further risk of hard frost, I will make incisions in the side of the bag and plant dwarf french beans to add to the leaves and onions that are in so far.



Much more comprehensive instructions can be viewed online either through SendACow's website or on their Youtube stream:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ul0kQ_2lvrE

Happy Easter

This Easter, I decided that my craving for chocolate was not going to dictate our purchasing decisions. I wasn't taken in by the chocolate eggs in the Co-op cleverly wrapped with marketing which shouted about their lack of excess packaging and decided to do something actually connected with new life with the seasonal budget. It's not rocket science to realise that we - in the priveliged first world - should be aware we need to take responsibilty for the miles our food is transported not just the packaging it is wrapped in. And support the sort of community projects that train the poor in Africa in ecologically viable subsistence faming.
So, instead of buying Easter Eggs we made a donation to "Send A Cow" and received a:

Sometime soon, I will post the photos I tooko of the steps we've taken to get our "Send A Cow" Save Our Soil Bag garden set up. As usual, I had to restrain myself from planting all the seeds that came with the kit at once. I am reliably informed the dwarf runner beans won't do very well if they go in before May.