Is it safe to use PVC plastic in an organic garden?

Back in 2014 I wrote a post titled Is it Safe to Grow Veggies in Styrofoam Boxes. This has been one of the most popular posts on my blog and has been read 12,720 times. I was reading Anne Gibson's blog The Micro Gardener the other day as I was looking for something specific and came across a post she had written called Is PVC Plastic Safe to Use in an Organic Garden? I thought to myself 'Oh no, don't tell me there is something wrong with PVC plastic as well' and continued reading and sure enough, it is not a good idea to use it in your garden.

How to make a mini-watersaver garden from an old wooden crate.

You may have read the recent posts here and here about growing vegetables in Styrofoam boxes as I was seeking advice as to whether it was safe to do so. We have decided against it and, of course, it is up to each individual to make up their own mind after researching the subject. So yesterday I had a go at making a mini-watersaver garden out of an old wooden crate based on the steps we followed when installing our large watersaver garden last year.

 

Is it safe to grow veggies in Styrofoam boxes?

I know that many gardeners around Australia and possibly elsewhere in the world, grow vegetables in Styrofoam boxes especially if they are renting or don't have a lot of space to put in larger gardens. We recently saw a couple of episodes on the ABC's Gardening Australia where the boxes were made into self-watering containers. As it is very dry here in SE Queensland at the moment and we are always on the look-out for any gardening methods that will save us water, we bought some broccoli boxes from a local greengrocer to give it a try.

Would you like to win a Watersaver Garden?

If you have been reading here for a little while you may have read a couple of posts about the Watersaver Garden we installed recently. Well, Alan Singleton,  the maker of these gardens is having a competition Australia-wide and is giving away two of them before Christmas.

Beetroot 'Cylindrica'

A few months ago we ordered some beetroot  'Cylindrica' seeds from Green Harvest as I had come across a reference to them when I was searching for some pickling recipes for using up the excess beetroot that we had in the garden. We now have the beetroot growing in our watersaver garden which we installed in September.

 

Our Watersaver Garden is installed!

We recently bought a Watersaver Garden. It took a while but it is now installed. Once the seedlings are in we will only have to water them for 3-5 days and after that the water level just has to be checked every five or six weeks. I took some photos of the installation process.

This is what we started with.

Watersaver gardens

When we visited the Toowoomba Gardenfest event this year, we were quite interested in the Watersaver Gardens which were on display there. As our area had been in drought for many years before the floods hit a couple of years ago, we had become very conscious of how much water we were using on our garden and we are still keen on finding new ways to save on our water usage as our water rates have increased.