Biodegradable Containers

We are all familiar with those plastic containers that plants are sold in. You know, plant your garden and you’re left with a pile of plastic containers. What do you do with them? In the past huge amounts of plastic plant containers have ended up in our landfills. At Phillips Garden we have done our best to reuse those containers ourselves or give them back to growers so they could reuse them. Fortunately, a couple years ago a recycling program was started by the Minnesota Nursery and Landscape Association. Now all of our plastic containers and trays are recycled.

While the recycling program was a good first step, at Phillips Garden we are always looking for better choices when it comes to a more sustainable and responsible way of doing things. That’s why we were excited when our friends at Rush Creek Growers started using a new biodegradable container  for all of their annuals and herbs. They are pretty nice looking containers (see photo above). The pots are made from mostly rice hulls as well as bamboo and straw. Everything is bound together by a water soluble starch based binder (say that 3 times fast). They are made to last 18 months for growing purposes and then can be thrown into the compost pile. Pretty cool. We applaud Rush Creek Growers for their commitment to this.

Rush Creek Growers

MNLA Recycling Program

MNLA AWARDS

Phillips Garden is the proud recipient of 2 ‘Grand Honor’ MNLA awards for Excellence in Landscape Design.  The MNLA is the Minnesota Nursery and Landscape Association.  The awards we were given were frontyard design and backyard design.  This post shows our two winning projects.  Beginning with the backyard:

This first project is our backyard design.  The challenge of this project was working in a small space with great change in elevation.  The success of this site was in turning a challenge into an opportunity.  Playing with different elevations and materials was the main focus of this backyard.

Before (above)

after ( 3 above)

This next project was our front yard design winner.  This site, also in St. Paul , was completely redesigned from the stairs, to to the walkway… fences and of course the garden planting.

before (above)

after (3 above)