Sustainable fabric grow bags are one of the easiest ways to create more growing space.

While our property has lots of space for us to turn into growing areas, it can be a bit of effort to set up new spaces. We experimented with planting rambling crops like potatoes, kūmara and pumpkins on a mulched bank but found that they struggled in poor quality clay soil that lacked nutrients and couldn’t hold moisture.

Mark didn’t want to give space in our raised garden beds to these and other root-based food crops, so he came up with another idea. For about a year now he’s been using fabric grow bags to plant turmeric, ginger, galangal, potatoes, kūmara, yams and peanuts. He lines them up against our retaining wall, each with a little sprinkler that’s connected to our automated irrigation system.

The bags are made from a porous fabric which allows for great aeration, meaning plants don’t suffer from overwatering or too much heat buildup. They’re reusable and easy to move. Put them somewhere you can water them easily, on a surface that can absorb any water that flows out.

We created a large, flat metal area and have several lined up in a row. We even bought some extra-large bags to use as flower planters right outside our front door. It’s amazing how much joy these planters have brought us. The kids yell out excitedly in the mornings when new flowers have come out overnight.

If you’d like to start growing vegetables or herbs, these felt bags would be an easy way to start, even if you don’t have much space to work with. There’s even a fabric raised garden bed that with a bag of compost means you could start growing your own veggies for less than the cost of takeaways.