I shared a while back how we’d softened our gabion seating area with planting, and that’s working out well. Recently I’ve moved some self-seeded foxgloves into the baskets, along with some self propagated ornamental grasses, and I had plans to complete the planting, but hadn’t quite worked out how until recently.
The way we’d placed our gabion baskets in an almost curve meant that we had triangular shaped gaps in between each basket. My plan was to plant this with herbs, to soften the area still further. I thought I’d use the same membrane to line the space, but it was a much smaller space and trickier than I’d hoped it would be.
And so I paused. And thought. For about a year and a bit.
And then inspiration struck.
Compost bags, they would work, and so inspired, I tried it. And it was a much easier way to ‘line’ these spaces, look:
To act as a proper container though, the compost bags needed some holes for drainage. Cue some fun with a garden fork, a compost bag on the grass and my boot. Holes made and I was well away.
The bags were in place, filled with soil - some of the remaining ‘spare’ soil I have in a hidey place in the garden at the bottom, some leaf mould and some of my newly discovered compost on the top. And two, now rather straggly, camomile plants to complete the job.
And I think this could work.
I have just realised though that I haven’t checked on them for a while, so I’m hoping they’re fairly resilient, keep your fingers crossed for the camomile….