Why you're doing such a good job with a Makkelijke Moestuin, you prevent and clean up loads of garbage, and give children something wonderful.
Jelmer and Abel next to a MM-Hero table planter.
Look: Jelmer and his son at an MM-Hero table planter. That garden box is made of recycled plastic and stainless steel, and therefore so strong that it will still be there when Abel grows up.
There are more boxes like that in Jelmer's garden. This picture is from 3 weeks ago. At that time they had just been put there, and were as good as bare:
Jelmer's garden - just created
Hmmm, plastic in the vegetable garden, should you want that?
I get those questions quite often. Won't the plastic harm your plants? Doesn't it rub off, or leak weird substances into the water or the mix? That sort of things. And plastic already causes enough problems, so why use even more?
I can understand that, because when you think of a vegetable garden you think of nature, and plastic doesn't belong there. You grow your own crops to harvest healthy vegetables: full of valuable vitamins and minerals. Without all that junk and nasty stuff you often hear about:
This kind of plastic does not make you happy
But did you know that with our containers it's the other way around?
Just take the MM-Hero's. With these, we not only clean up mountains of that nasty plastic - which would otherwise end up in incinerators - but the material in the boards is super safe.
I'm not just making that up, it's been proven. By an independent agency that does this kind of research.
So, Arjen can eat in peace from the plants he inspects here:
Want to know more about the Hero's?
On this page I tell you:
what they are made of
how much plastic junk we keep out of nature
how they differ from other recycled plastic products
and whether they leak anything into your garden and vegetables
About sustainability: whether or not you have an MM-Hero or one of our other containers: with a vegetable garden, you're doing the right thing anyway.
Because if you grow (part of) your vegetables in your own garden, you are already reducing waste and emissions. And since tens of thousands of others garden with us, that already makes a big difference.
So if you ask me if we are sustainable, I say yes. Yet that's not at the top of the list for us.
What does rank there is that you can grow your own vegetables - successfully and as easily as possible. Preferably with stuff that lasts a long time, so they won't end up in the trash after only a year.
Moving Charlieh's Hero to her next house
Charlieh's Hero goes along in the moving van: on to her next house 😀
The more people get into vegetable gardening, the better it is for the environment. Just think of all those bees and bumblebees that find a safe home in those gardens. Very important in this day and age.
Flowering palm cabbage: early spring food for honeybees
But to get all that done, we also have to do things that are still a little less sustainable.
For example, our packages are still delivered by diesel trucks, the mix is packed in (recycled) plastic bags, and we use quite a lot of energy in our warehouse.
So we keep looking for even better solutions. As long as it is not at the expense of the best result.
Harvesting a lot: that's what it's all about
And how ab out the children?
Well: sustainable vegetable gardening and children go hand in hand.
Because if we do our best to clean up the world, they will have a better future. While getting plenty of healthy vitamins as they grow up.
Besides, kids love those plants:
Super exciting: those little plants
Just look at Evanna's son who wants to do everything himself, Abel who inspects the planters every day, Myrthee's daughter who wants to water the plants every day, and Au3's daughter who sows her own spinach.
Finally nice weather?
So. I think I've told everything I wanted to.
On to the coming week. According to KNMI, it will be quite nice spring weather. No objection to that, right?
Source: KNMI
The temperature will rise so the plants will grow faster. Who knows, maybe next weekend I'll be able to harvest the first leaves 🙂
