2ndUse Decorative Containers To Soil
This project was inspired through my investigations in uses for straw. Living in Colorado this material is very available. Often you can find it for free either used for fall decorations or bedding that is slightly old and moldy. I have used it for mulch in my garden beds to help keep in water and slow weeds. One word of caution, straw is flammable so I never use it in beds around my house. I have also used it as carbon supply for composting and I have seen it used as a building material for hay bail houses.
Dirt Makers are straw bales used as a pedestal for containers to grow bedding plants. In my landscaping I use the Dirt Makers as an architectural element that acts as a divider or border between my driveway and front yard. My first experiment used flowering plants with the center being purple fountain grass. I thought it was an interesting mimetic play to have grass growing in grass.
The idea is that as the plants grow on top the roots will help break down the turning the straw in to compost. This means that there will be an element of entropy in the installation as the straw decomposes the Dirt Makers shrink and pitch. Eventually the straw will break down to compost that will be used perhaps as the soil in the next generation of dirt makers.
As an aside I like the idea that the straw bales hold water. This helps with keeping the soil in the containers moist, which is critical in the Colorado environment. It is like using mulch to hold the water, but up side down.
After making these I have heard that people grow tomatoes in straw bails, I would be afraid they would tip over in the wind. Perhaps an herb garden would be nice.
I made the containers for the soil out of found material in a metal scrap pile and my colleague Evan Blackstock, taught me the tools and techniques to make them.
I placed the structure on the bails on bails, added 3 inches of potting soil. Plan on using the soil created for the next generation of Dirt Makers.
Dirt Makers ready for planting with the metal containers and three inches of potting soil.
Dirt Makers when first planted in Mid Summer
Dirt Makers In Fall, notice the tilt from decomposition and enjoy the wabi sabi.
sweet little planters with the sides exposed to the air do they work similar to an aeration pot? Also do the roots "self prune" as they are exposed to the air or do the roots hang out of the sides continueing to grow?
ReplyDeleteThanks so much for your comment,
ReplyDeleteTo tell you the truth I am not sure. There is such a mass for the roots to grow with in the straw bail and potting soil that I think the roots are following the path of the water within the center of the Dirt Makers.
I surly can say that I see no roots poking out.