Softening the edges

Latest post from MARKSVEGPLOT – a blog about food and gardening in England”

This post will probably be of interest to anyone who is growing trailing plants, such as tomatoes, courgettes and squashes, in containers. These containers often have a fairly sharp edge, and when the stem of the plant flops over it, it may get damaged, like this little courgette:

Here’s a way of preventing such damage.

Take a piece of cylindrical rubber / plastic (possibly a piece of an old hosepipe), a few inches long. This one is about 3 inches and is made of soft rubber:

Using a craft knife or sharp scissors, make a slit the whole length of the cylinder:

Slip the piping over the edge of your flower-pot in the place where the plant stem crosses it:

Voila, the edge is “softened”. Job done!

Naturally, this technique works with many different materials…(an empty water bottle for instance).

My Courgette and Cucumber container has a particularly sharp edge because it is made from an old water-butt that I sawed in half. It is definitely going to need the treatment!

I’m not quite sure yet what I’m going to do about the “Maskotka” tomatoes growing in this tall wooden planter.

The black plastic crates in which they are growing have nicely rounded edges, but the planter itself has a wide, sharp edge.

I don’t think it will be practical to apply the technique demonstrated above to this thing. The plants may just have to take their chances…

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