Mini Green Bags

 In late 2007, Tim Robson, a Gardener of the Year finalist on the Gardening Australia show, discussed using organza bags to protect plants from pests rather than spraying with chemicals or using calico bags which look ugly and also exclude the sunlight. 

Capsicums growing on my patio were being attacked pretty badly so I decided to try his suggestion. I bought some dark green organza, selecting a green shade mostly because I believed I could see the fruit more easily than with the other colours available but also because “green” has become synonymous with the environment.

I remembered an Earth Garden article (Issue 137, Sep-Nov 2006) that I had read about making your own bags to hold fruit and vegetables, and followed the steps given. The little bags did a great job of keeping insects away and reduced the damage done to the capsicums.

Then I decided to make a bigger bag for fruit and veges. I tried using tulle as suggested in the article, but found it difficult to work with, so I’ve used organza for these bigger bags.

I get a lot of positive comments about my fruit bags when I'm out shopping, in the same way the author of the article did. People have even suggested that I could sell them. I’m not interested in making enough bags to sell, but might consider making them as presents in the future.

As with everything, there is a downside to this. Since I acquired a worm farm a few years ago, I have been using plastic bags to hold the fruit and veg scraps that I can’t feed to the worms. Now I’m running low on suitable plastic bags. So as much as it goes against my grain, I will need to conveniently forget to use my home-made bags for a little while in order to boost my stash of plastic bags.