A recent article in Mother Earth News dares you to think outside the rectangle. Yes it’s “think outside the box”, but when you are thinking of alternatives to the common garden patch you might be thinking outside the rectangle. People in all spaces and places love to garden. Those who live in apartments might not have the luxury of a patch of earth to dig in and some gardeners may decide they have seen their glory days of digging and tilling huge gardens and opt for small potted patio gardens. No matter the size of the garden, steel plant markers will fit in perfectly.
Thinking vertical can help you if you lack gardening space. If you live in an apartment or home where you just don’t have the soil or the room to grow, you can gain space by using vertical objects like ladders with wooden boxes on the stairs, old wooden dressers with drawers pulled half-way out or wooden pallets. Take care to not put your plants in chemically-treated wood. Pallets may be marked with an HT to announce that they were heat treated rather than chemically treated.
Hanging baskets are another option to vertical gardening. A string of plants cascading down from a porch or patio ceiling adds depth and intimacy in your space. You can even use steel plant markers in hanging baskets when the markers are light, yet durable. Shorter plant stakes can fit snugly into hanging baskets, planted pots and any window box-like container.
Another interesting idea is to use a hay bale as your garden. There is no soil needed, no heavy weed-eating to do and there is a garden contained within one raised bed. The raised bed also reduces back strain while gardening. Because straw bales produce heat as they slowly decompose, gardeners can extend their growing season by planting in a warm hay bale. Each season you’ll need to get a new hay bale to use, but it will keep your plants from getting rot or disease from the moist decaying straw.
Hay bales might be a more attractive raised bed because there is no hauling of dirt involved in these gardens. No time is spent constructing a structure for the raised garden, no dirt has to be hauled in and then put in the beds. The bales can be put anywhere you find a small rectangular spot—just outside your back door, on a cement driveway or as an additional interesting fixture in your yard among your traditional ground gardens.
With the steel plant markers we produce at Kincaid Plant Markers you can choose the right height of stainless steel posts, perfect angle of plant label plate and lettering that is just the right size for your plant container. Thinking outside of the rectangle can give a lift to your garden and increase your gardening space.
