GARDENING: ‘WHERE CAN I FIND DRAIN TRAYS?’
Q. I want to grow vegetables and herbs on the rooftop of my home in Wah Cantt. I have researched the subject in depth and feel confident about success. However, I have hit a blank in sourcing certain necessary items such as drain trays and weed cloth. Where can I get these or can you suggest alternatives?
A. Improvisation is the name of the game here. Aside from the drainage trays available with individual plant pots, personally speaking, I haven’t seen anything specifically made for this purpose and haven’t come across weed cloth either.
I have, however, found that shallow metal (usually aluminium) oven trays make excellent drain trays for recycled wooden boxes used as planters; these are not overly expensive in the bazaar, are lightweight and long-lasting. Instead of specialised weed cloth, you can use jute sacking cut to size — the sacks need not be new — or, literally at no cost, recycle strong cardboard boxes cut to size: with either of these all you need to do is cut out suitably sized holes for plants to grow through.
All your gardening queries answered
The idea of weed cloth is to suppress/prevent weed growth and jute sacking and cardboard do this. As an added bonus, they reduce water evaporation from the soil so save on this precious commodity too. I do not recommend using black plastic as it is toxic, prevents the soil from breathing and, in summer, further raises soil temperatures.
Q. Can Moringa trees be grown successfully in the Islamabad area? If so, where can I get saplings, seeds or stems for propagation? I want to cultivate Moringa as fodder for my goats.
A. Moringa oleifera is an indigenous tree often found growing wild in the Islamabad/Rawalpindi districts as well as in other plain areas of the country. I believe that saplings may be sourced from the Arid Agriculture University, Murree Road, Rawalpindi and perhaps from the forestry department, too. Otherwise, you may hit it lucky in one of the nurseries around Peshawar Morr. If unsuccessful, harvesting seed from the wild and propagating it is the best alternative.