Everyone I suppose has come across the term ‘old crock.’ When applied to humans it is generally a disparaging term. I have been describing the England cricket team over the last few years as a load of old crocks. I have been described as an old crock myself! However in gardening the term ‘old crock’ has great significance, and is nearly always important.
I have mentioned many times just how important drainage is for the successful growing of plants, excluding of course those which grow naturally in swamps or ponds. Deep forking over the lawns during rainy conditions, mulching borders and single specimen shrubs and trees, and incorporating composts into the soil at the base of holes before planting are a few important techniques. I have said nothing about good drainage in pot plants until now.
All potted plants need to have good drainage, and this is achieved by using ‘old crocks.’ These are generally broken pieces of clay pots which the wise gardener never throws away, but saves in an old bucket or box for this very purpose. So the wise gardener having made sure the pots about to be used are scrubbed clean, that the compost has been sterilized and mixed properly comes to the old crocks’ stage of the game. The very first thing to do is to find a good size piece of broken crock. This is then placed over the hole at the bottom of the pot in an inverted position like an upside-down saucer, so that it sheds the water filtering through the soil and doesn’t collect it, but allows it to run out through the bottom of the pot. If the base of the pot is small then one or more smaller pieces are used. The use of crocks prevents compost being washed out.
Old-time gardeners of the early part of the 20th century, being pioneers in the rapidly growing art and craft of growing plants for the table as well as for decorating the houses of the wealthy, always used to put a little bit of leaf mould at the base of pots or seed trays which acted as a sponge in drying conditions, and provided an excellent medium for the roots to get a hold of as they were growing. In the case of seedlings, however, I always used to think this caused too much root damage when they were lifted out of the trays, and this point was generally accepted. As a result, the practice of putting organic litter in the bottom of the seed boxes was pretty well discontinued with the advent of the modern plastic tray with its smaller holes.
Pandanus baptistii is one of the few screw pines without a serrated edge to its strap-like leaves. It is easy to handle and doesn’t cut you to pieces when you cut or pass it. I am certain all the plants of the variegated Pandanus baptistii in Guyana are progeny from one that I introduced here over 20 years ago. My specimen is getting on for twenty feet, has masses of stilted roots and has produced fruits for the very first time. I have one of these fruits on my desk as I type, and it looks just like a brain. Each of the segments has seed embedded in the pulp. Whether they will be fertile is anyone’s guess but my guess is that they will not be.
The fruits are supposed to be edible but I must admit they don’t look too appetizing.
And now a little piece to do with plants but not with my garden plants. Flying over Guyana’s rain forest a few weeks ago I allowed myself to become optimistic about this vast tract of trees, all consuming massive amounts of carbon dioxide and giving us (and other countries) oxygen in return. I then remembered hearing that the population in Brazil was about 90 million and that 28 years later it would be 150 million. In twenty years it will more than double again. The Brazilians in response to poverty and population pressure has started to open their interior, a mistake we all are going to pay for in time. Unless their population growth is controlled they will in time start affecting the production of oxygen for the rest of the world. This is not fanciful but a fact. So the preservation of our rain forest is of the highest importance. We have not got a burgeoning population and neither do we want one.
We just want the trees, and there has never been a better case for preserving them than now. Take care and may your God go with you.
