New products: Pots and planting kits
by Drucilla James
Image courtesy of Sgaravatti Trend
Here are new pots and planters to tempt you to extend the gardening season both indoors and out.
KalaMitica Magnetic Pots
Italian company Sgaravatti Trend launches its truly eye-catching KalaMitica Magnetic Pots and mounting boards in the UK this month, in tune with the growing trend for using plants as living wall displays. Their colourful, long-life and versatile pots with their integrated super-strong magnets can be attached to any metal surface allowing you to create stylish wall features and save space on furniture and kitchen worktops at the same time.
There are three shapes of pots to choose from– cube, pyramid and cylinder- and these come in many different sizes and vivid colours. Pots can also be bought ready planted.
The range of plates -metal mounts -to accompany them, some of which come with attractive frames and one of which also has LED lights incorporated for additional eye-appeal and to encourage plant growth, provides versatile backdrops to complement any room setting.
Prices: Pots £2.99 to £9.99, Rectangular plates £9.50 to £15.60 and ‘Shaped’ plates - butterfly or cat shapes for example £15.80 to £22.
Pots will soon be available in stores around the UK and can also be ordered from the website www.sgaravatti.eu
The Green Pockets
For another vertical planting solution, this time for indoors or out, you could also have a look at the newly available The Green Pockets.
These hanging pockets are designed to be fully functional plant containers to suit any living or working area. You can hang them individually or using the stainless steel O-rings in the corners attach any number together to make a wall feature or room or garden divider.
There are two types of pocket - the AMMA made from acrylic fibre and the PEVA made from PVC, both reinforced top and bottom with fibreglass bars to maintain their shape. Both can be used indoors or out although the PEVA will withstand more extreme weather conditions. Both types come in a range of colours. Overall size is 45 x 50 cms with a pocket size of 25 x 20 cms.
Price: £24.99 per pocket.
Available from UK stockists: http://www.urban-flora.co.uk/
Plant ‘n’ Grow
Find the idea of growing your own food daunting and with no time to study gardening books? Plant ‘n’ Grow is a simple way to get you started be it on a windowsill, in a window-box or garden. Even a small one metre square plot could supply enough vegetables to save you a substantial sum at the checkout.
Plant ‘n’ Grow offers town and city dwellers a range of easy to use indoor and outdoor grow-your-own kits for cultivating herbs, vegetables, edible flowers and microgreens. Each box (designed to fit through a letter box) contains high quality seeds, a mini-propagator, compost discs, wooden plant markers and illustrated instruction cards including a specially created recipe card from The Edinburgh School of Food and Wine.
The three best sellers from the dozen packs featured in the range are:
- Herbalicious: with chives, coriander, dill, Greek basil, mint and parsley
- Edible Flower Starter Kit: with Cornflower, Calendula, Nasturtium and Viola
- Veg Starter Kit: with carrot, dwarf French beans, peas, spinach and Swiss chard
There are also Salad, Baby Leaf Salad, Asian Vegetable, Italian, Meat Lovers’ Herb, Stir-fry and Micro-green Mix starter kits.
The Edinburgh-based company, which launched the kits this summer, hopes to get as many people as possible growing their own affordable, sustainable and seasonal selection of fresh food.
Apart from the box instructions, there is also a website where you can access hints, tips and recipes to keep you sowing, growing, harvesting and cooking.
In effect, the complete package!
Price: £13.95 per kit.
Available from: www.plant-n-grow.com
Flower Pot Filters
Flower Pot Filters are an ingenious device for allowing you the pleasures of plants without the debris that sometimes goes with them. They keep your compost where it belongs - inside your pots!
The Filter’s simple lattice circle placed at the base, over the drain holes in the pots, keeps in the compost and thus stops dirt spilling out of the base on to your home and garden surfaces, while still allowing water to circulate freely. As well as preventing soil escaping, it also acts as a closed door to bugs and insects and stops them burrowing in to lay eggs, hibernate for the winter or just feast on the roots.
Replacing the need for rocks and crocks to provide drainage at the base of plant pots, the Filter helps improve the hygiene, condition and appearance of your plants and helps protect them during the winter too.
The Filters are very easy to install; you just remove the plant and place the filter in the base of the plant pot to create a snug fit, trimming to size with scissors if required. You can also use the Filters when transplanting to larger pots or before growing from seed.
The Filters are available in six handy sizes from 9cm to 20cm.
Price: From €4.25 to 7.95 for a pack of fifteen.
UK stockists: Coolings The Gardener’s Garden Centre [email protected]