Page 19 - Simply Vegetables Autumn 2020

Adapting recycled materials
GRAEME LE MARQUAND FNVS
I have been involved with La Moye
prison for about 16 years, purely on the horticultural side. What I find interesting is the way the horticultural prison staff and prisoners come up with different ideas for adapting recycled materials to suit their growing needs, not just in vegetables but floral displays too.
I myself am always looking for ideas to promote our lovely Jersey produce especially when it is showcased in old carts and quirky containers from bygone days. It seems to bring the product to life.
My last visit to the prison was at the beginning of March this year when the prisoners were working on a recycled plastic-barrel project with the idea of using it to grow vegetables.
That was the last I saw of it, as I have not been back since the pandemic outbreak.
So I was absolutely thrilled when I received photos from the prison of the exact same barrel that was undergoing trials for growing vegetables. All of a sudden this barrel in all its glory had come to life show casing its lovely display of salads.
This was the brainchild of vocational training instructor Jonathan Le Gresley
who came up with the idea of creating
these recycled vertical planters. They would give maximum yield for minimum space, whilst giving the prisoners meaningful and purposeful work in addition to supplying their kitchen with fresh produce.
These barrels, on occasions are available on the island and would make ideal projects, especially for schools who normally only have hard surfaces to work on. The prison has kindly loaned me one so that our vegetable society can demonstrate to interested parties, their use in growing not only vegetables but other plants that trail, like strawberries, nasturtium, parsley, rocket -the list is endless.
The barrel has about 50 planting stations which were originally marked out in
black lines around 5 inches (13cm) long. Each marked line was cut and then heated with a hair dryer and once softened and still warm a piece of Timber with a slanted edge would be thrust into the cut and stretched into a lip thus forming a planting station.
The design of course can be shaped to suit ones needs with just 20 planting stations, if need be.
The bottom of the barrel has drainage holes along with a 38inx4in (96cmx10cm) guttering down pipe, also with drainage holes, which is placed in the centre of the barrel. The pipe is then placed through a 4 in (10 cm) cut through the bottom of the barrel
and fitted with a stopper. The barrel is then ready for active duty and will be placed on blocks and filled with an earth and compost mix.
The pie’ce de resistance on this little number is that the Inlet on the pipe is used as a wormery.
Vegetable peel from the kitchen is fed
into the pipe, which in return is filled with earthworms. I am told that some even squeeze through the drainage holes into
the compost. The worms are replenished when necessary and the stopper is taken off the pipe to collect the worm juice which is regenerated back into the vegetables.
Simply Vegetables 19