Click below to listen to my Garden Bite radio show: Salad bowl fiasco
At the risk of being ridiculed, I’m going to admit to several mistakes in my attempt to create a Salad Bowl. What looked to be a fun project….
Sometimes as a gardener, you just want to experiment. There are all these clever ideas and, most of the time, I don’t HAVE the time to do them but this year I was peeking back at some old gardening magazines and found instructions on creating a Salad Bowl! Well, why not… I’ll tell you why not – HA!
First, here are the instructions I (should have) followed:
- 2 10 inch hanging baskets, with liners.
- Soilless potting mix
- 12” by 12” square piece of cardboard
- six pieces of rustproof metal wire
- 35 to 40 salad green seedlings of any sort.
First up, take the chains off, fill the lined baskets to the very top with premoistened potting mix. Put the cardboard square on top of one basket to keep the soil in place, then flip that basket onto the other filled basket and remove the cardboard. Using the metal wire, weave the baskets together, then put a chain back on one. Now cut x slits in the bowl to plant your seedlings! As you plant each one, remove a little of the soil and gently tease the seedling in through the X and press into place.
Continue planting all over your salad bowl leaving about 3 inches in between each seedling. Soak the ball well every day and trim the greens back if you want to maintain a topiary look.
Honestly I have no idea how well this will work but it’s fun to experiment! Well, now I do!
First mistake, the use of SOIL… rather than soilLESS
Second mistake, the old baskets I dug out from behind other “junk” in the garage… There are actually a couple of things wrong, the lining and the baskets pattern is too small to put even seedlings in.
So now I’m determined… I go to a nearby store and buy a couple of baskets I think will work.
I also knew that I was NOT going to insert the estimated amount of seedlings. First, I couldn’t find any. (My garden is planted). Second, I wanted herbs and flowers too. So, I picked up some rosemary, greek thyme, cilantro and used some mesclun seedlings I had growing in a container. Also bought some lantana and ivies.
I used plastic coated wire to weave the baskets together. Did I mention how HEAVY this thing was filled with soil instead of soilLESS!?! ARG….
So, after getting this finally put together, I had to make slits in the lining… NOT easy. Then, stuffing the plants I’d bought into the slits… NOT easy. Then I had to hang it. Did I mention how HEAVY this thing is?!?
And now, as for “soaking” it in water every day…. not a chance. I had all I could do to hang that thing. So, I am using a spray bottle… Not sure it’s going to work. In fact, I’ll likely take it down and make a regular basket…
So, there you have it – my Salad Bowl Fiasco! As my dad would say, “I already made those mistakes, that’s why I’m telling you, so you don’t have to”! As I promptly made those mistakes! 😉
