The Ana Garden : Easy Grow from B & Q

We  love our garden, and love spending time in it.  As the temperature is warming, we have started to spend weekends in it, and begin the cycle of new planting ready for the summer.  Last years freshly planted bulbs have started to grow, it’s so exciting for the girls seeing them pop up randomly around the garden. We want to try to attract more butterflies and bees to the garden this year, so we will be looking at adding more flowers.

This weekend we planted some Begonia’s (semperflorens – rainforest mix) in a bed at the front of the house.  We are testing out the new technology easyGrow™ from B&Q.

This easyGrow technology uses  the innovative biodegradable Teabags, that surround the roots and compost you can see above.  It definitely made it very easy to take the plants out of the recycled tray.  Also because of the teabag, the roots looked and felt less compact and strangled, so I can see how it could also produce healthier plants over the season.  You are also less likely to damage the roots and plant as you take them out of the packaging.  This made planting easier whilst keeping plants healthy, and no mess too.

Because it doesn’t use the usual polystyrene it is most importantly environmentally friendly technology too.

Did you know :

•             B&Q sell 80 million bedding plants between March and May – which would result in 22,500 cubic metres of polystyrene being sent to landfill, enough to fill 87,200 wheelie bins or 9 Olympic sized swimming pools

•             The new packaging is 95% peat free, helping to ease pressure on the excavation of peat bogs, using coir instead which is made from coconut husks. Each plant can be put straight into the ground, encased in a ‘teabag’ and is fully compostable

•             94% of this peat bogs in England have been excavated largely for use in compost

•             Peat use in gardening in the UK releases around 1.25 million tonnes of CO2 each year.  Around 400,000 tonnes of this comes directly from commercial peat extraction on UK bogs

The girls had great fun planting and watering the plants.

 

If you want to learn more about the technology please see HERE on the website.

Here is also a great YouTube video from Emilia Fox

 

I was sent a tray of plants in order to review the new technology.  I will follow this up in a couple of weeks, to show you how well the plants are doing. I have not been compensated in any way for the post.