About a year ago, I reported on the failure of the lining for the VegTrug that I purchased about 2 years ago. It was time to carry out a VegTrug repair.
VegTrug Fail – Liner is rotting in less than 12 months
The issue with the lining was that I had exposed it to Ultraviolet light, which degrades the plastic that it’s made from. I should have followed the instructions which said that I should have tucked the liner back under the level of the soil.
So, a year later (can’t rush these things), I decided upon a course of action. I was offered a replacement liner by the company, however I chose to come up with my own longer lasting solution.
I found a UV resistant shade cloth that I had stored in the shed, removed all the soil from the old liner into my wheelbarrow, and then staple gunned it to the inside of the VegTrug.
VegTrug Repair using shade cloth
I folded the shade cloth over twice so to have double thickness and used my trusty staple gun to fix it in place. To ensure that there was sufficient depth, I made sure that there was at least 50 cm overhang at each end before I stapled it in place.
Liner excess tucked into the inside.
I have to fold a fair bit of it over, but it was better than cutting it to shape and fiddling around for ages. It took me only 10 minutes to fix this liner in place.
Not a bad job, if I do say so myself!
Recovering hydrophobic soil
The soil was very hydrophobic, with the water beading on top. This often occurs when your soil is completely dry.
To fix the issue, I mix in about 500 gm of organic pelletised chicken manure in to the soil, then add a few drops of washing detergent to a 9 litre watering can and filled it with water, and watered the soil. The tiny amount of detergent breaks the surface tension caused by the hydrophobic soil and allows it to soak in. It works like a charm.
This VegTrug was placed on our deck and receives about 4 hours of sunlight a day. It is sheltered from the harsh midday sun, so they are an ideal place to grow lettuce greens.
Because I have 2 VegTrug, here is one that I repaired and planted out two weeks ago with pick again lettuce. We have harvested from it twice now for a salad and because it was growing so well which is the main reason I decided to fix the second one today.
Two VegTrug repaired with shade cloth
I did cheat a little and purchased the seedlings from our local nursery, but this late in the season they were on sale for half price. I also interplanted the big lettuces with small baby leaf that will grow to replace them as the older ones bolt to seed in about a month or so.
Now we have an abundant salad garden and are avoiding any potential salad contamination scares by growing our own leaves. Kim is happy, so I am very happy with my VegTrug repair!
I’m pleased with my repair job and even more so because it didn’t cost me anything except a few staples.
And it saved us a small fortune in salad leaves. Got to be happy about that!
