Happy weekends to you all. Something interesting I'll share with you.
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If you notice most of the houses these days, they don’t have any yard or very little yard and what yard they do have is covered in concrete and tiles from the main gate all the way to the boundary walls of their houses. It looks so clean and I first thought there’s no way to even grow plants in here but people still manage to grow things. Most of these houses have the plants in big plastic buckets and square plastic tubs on the tiled floors. To grow plants in these containers, we have to make adjustments to how we normally grow plants and it’s really interesting to see how we have to manipulate nature to grow things in these small spaces of soil.
When a plant is grown in an open space, like a farm, the roots of the plant go deep into the ground to search for water and nutrients. They spread out as far as possible. When a plant is grown in a space as small as a plastic bucket on a concrete floor, the roots of the plant grow until they hit the sides or bottom of the pail. They curl around and become very thick as they search for more space to grow. Because a plant grown in a space this small only has a small amount of soil, we must give the plant lots of extra food and nutrients to ensure that it grows adequately. Also, because the soil in a pail on a concrete floor has nowhere for heavy rain to go, we must make sure that the pail has holes in the bottom of it.
If there were no holes, the water would collect in the pail and the roots of the plant would soon rot because the soil would become mud. But, as water seeps out of the bottom of the pail, it pulls down fresh air and oxygen from above the soil. The roots of a plant constantly need oxygen as they break down the plant’s food to produce energy for the plant.
The temperature on a paved surface can get very hot in the day. I know that the concrete and the floor tiles will soak up the heat from the sun throughout the day and then slowly release the heat throughout the night. This means that the ground around the pots of plants in paved gardens is much hotter than normal ground.
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The plastic pots sit on top of the paved surfaces so they too will absorb the heat from the floor. Because, the soil in the pots will get much hotter than normal. This means that all the water in the soil will evaporate quickly. Because, the roots of the plant will get hot and the plant will drink lots of water. The leaves on the plant will act like solar panels to produce energy for the plant but they will also sweat to cool down the plant. The big green leaves on plants are very important. They work hard all day to catch sunlight to produce food for the plant but at the same time they work hard to produce sweat to cool down the plant. Because, all the water in the leaves of the plant will be lost quickly.
The roots of the plant will rush to try to absorb as much water as possible from the small amount of soil in the pot. It takes a lot of care to manage a garden on a paved surface and to water the plants at the right time.
Besides this, the light from the sun is also affected by the tiles.
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Normally, soil would absorb sunlight but with patio tiles, the sunlight is reflected up towards the air. This additional heat and light at the base of leaves can cause plants to grow very quickly and become very bushy in a bid to cover itself from any burning light. Some plants are better than others at thriving on a patio and these like to be the plants with small waxy leaves that can store lots of water. Besides this, the wind in a walled yard is also affected by the concrete walls.
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The wind will change direction as it hits the walls of a yard and will travel in unpredictable pockets of air. This can dry out soil very quickly and in a strange manner. Also, tall plants can be affected by strong gusts of wind that blow around corners of yards with hard surfaces. Roots of plants cannot grow deep into non existent soil and so stems must grow in thickness to support their own weight as well as any flower or leaves.
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A garden like this lacks many natural helpers found in normal earthy soils. In these types of gardens, all nutrients are added in a controlled manner and a healthy flowering plant like this is completely dependent on a human for its supply of nutrients. As such, growing a garden in a city yard on a patio is an interesting combination of biology and physics and deals with problems of heat, water and space.
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