Gardening with Foam Boxes

Sunday 31st July 2011



I've collected some foam eskies from work to start my vegetable garden with. They usually get thrown out and I find that such a waste!



Firstly, I found a length of wood (I believe it may be a broom handle that's missing the 'broom' bit) and poked holes into the bottom of the boxes. These will be for drainage. It was surprising easy to poke the holes!



Next, I placed a few sheets of newspaper in the bottom of each esky. This will hold the potting in so it doesn't just slip out through the holes.

Pour in the potting mix, add the plants and voila.

A quick little setup.

Vegetable Peelers

Tuesday 26th July 2011



It occurred to me not long ago that I was missing a vital utensil from my hoard of kitchen utensils.

A vegetable peeler.

Now, I love the one that Mum has at home and saw it available at Woolworths. However, right beside it I also saw a packet of four peelers for less than the price of the one Mum has. I stood there, debating on quality over price. Sure, I know that the one Mum has works and is great. Then again, maybe the cheaper ones will work just as well and I could get four of them?




I decided to opt for the cheaper Woolworths Essentials peelers. The packet of four cost me less than $4.

Big mistake.

I got home and started peeling apples and pears for a crumble dessert and was utterly dismayed at how crap the peelers were. I had great difficulty piercing the skin of the apples and pears. It took two hours to do something that should have taken half an hour.

The next time I was at the shops, I saw these Kmart Home Brand peelers.



Of course, I was seduced by the fact that they're purple and only $2.

The peeler blade was a bit sharper than the cheap Woolworths ones but were not much better overall. The handle is rather wide and not at all ergonomic to hold so using it was always awkward.




At this point I considered going out and buying a bunch of peelers and trying them all but common sense prevailed. I went back to Woolworths and bought the Culinare peeler. Funnily enough, it was 20% off so I paid less for it than those crappy green ones!