The Grow Bag Frame – Product Review

Review by Michael Smith (Veshengro)

ENGINEERED FOR URBAN GARDENS

The Grow Bag Frame is one of those "now why didn't I think of that" ideas. It lets you make the most of your grow bag by simply turning it on its side.

Simple and elegant in design, not only does it take up less space, it provides plants with deeper soil, encouraging stronger roots, and makes for less messy watering.

The pack includes plant supports and can be flat-packed for storage at the end of the season. Materials are two side frame and two cross bars, both manufactured from 6mm diameter, recycled (BS1052) galvanized mild steel and the three looped ties are made from strong 12mm plastic strapping. Made in the U.K. Dimensions: 86cm x 28cm x 120cm H. (33¾" x 11" x 47¼").

The strapping is of the kind that is generally used for large packaging and for securing stuff to pallets also. It is a very strong plastic webbing and will last for ages.

What we call in Britain a grow bag is not something that our American cousins are familiar with. I fact, I do believe one cannot even get that kind of bag filled with compost in the US.

Therefore Crown Garden Products have also created the reusable grow bag which can be used with the Grow Bag Frame.

The Grow Bag Frame is designed with a unique clip fixing - quick and easy to assemble and dismantle – the component parts simply slot together. The lower cross bar draws the grow bag upwards creating voids for watering and feeding. The whole planted assembly is very stable and can be picked up and moved by gently gripping and lifting the two end frames. For taller growing plants put a cane into the grow bag and tie it to the two cross bars to give your plants as much vertical support as you need.

The first time that I saw the Grow Bag Frame was a couple of years ago at one of the RHS' Flower Shows in London and was immediately taken by it, realizing what great concept it was and it was good to hear then that the makers had patented the design. Something that often gets forgotten and then a great idea, such as the Ladder Allotments, get copied by large manufactures who then can outperform the original designers and makers.

The Reusable Grow Bag, designed especially for The Grow Bag Frame, is a reusable grow bag made from tough heavy duty Polyethylene. All you need to do is to fill it with your ideal compost for vegetables, fruit or flowers. It has a capacity of 25 liters and is, like the frame, made in the UK.

The frame is easily assembled and, in all honesty, with a little common sense (very rare though nowadays) one does not even need instructions. It is intuitive, as far as I am concerned. However, anyone requiring instructions they come with it and also can be found online on Crown Garden Products' website.

The great thing about the Grow Bag Frame is that you can easily, with the bag and plants, move it around, say on a patio, and you don't have to be Geoff Capes to do so.

Crown Garden Products Limited are a small British company, specializing in developing products that help the home gardener achieve better results by using simple, stylish and clever ideas. All products are made in UK.

Recommended Retail Price £19.95 excl delivery.

A great idea and product for the urban gardener but which will equally be at home in the cottage garden in the country.

© 2013

Nick Clegg calls for new garden cities and suburbs

by Michael Smith (Veshengro)

The British Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg has made a call for a new generation of garden cities that has been cheered by the Town and Country Planning Association (TCPA) and the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA).

Clegg also said that the UK has the smallest new homes in Western Europe and that in the future housebuilders should create light and spacious, flexible homes with lots of private and open spaces.

However, and one can but agree with them, the CPRE say what about building on brownfield land and improving the existing towns and cities.

We do not need Eco-Towns, as were proposed by the previous Labor government, nor do we need these so-called garden cities and suburbs. There are existing towns and cities and homes within them that need improving and greening and there is enough brownfield land in towns and cities that could become parks and gardens.

But, as we can see, it is a case of jobs for the boys, in this case the architects and building companies, such as Wimpy and Barrats, and the like.

The same people who lost out when the Eco-Towns fell by the wayside are now to be getting a little boost, it would appear.

There is no need for any of this building and there is not even any need to build new homes as there are enough empty homes in Britain to house the homeless population of this country several times over, including social housing stock that has been removed even from the empty housing register, such as the Ocean Estate in Stepney.

The destruction of the Robin Hood Estate in Poplar also is not necessary as the people would really love to remain living there, though they might like having the places done up a little.

However, seeing where those housing estates are the land is far too valuable for housing the poorer in society. There is lots of money to be made from the land if can but be sold to developers, which is exactly the fate earmarked for the Robin Hood Estate.

The British government establishment has no interest in the people, and it does not matter which party is “in charge” but only in money that they can get, by way of backhanders, from the people they favor.

RIBA and other groups only think of profit also and talk about of getting the country building again. Refurbishing is also part of building but we toss away homes in the same way that we toss away a supposedly obsolete cell phone or PC.

The throwaway society has even arrived in the housing sector, it would appear, and I have seen several examples of such stupidity over the years now. Such as when in Hackney, some decades past, a large estate of pre-World War Two homes, several thousand of them, and in place of which was built a housing area with just under five hundred homes. No wonder we have a homelessness crisis.

We need no new garden cities and suburbs, we need to green our existing towns and cities.

© 2012