Episode: 9
Title: Edible water bowl
Broadcast: Sunday January 8th 2017
Presenter: Calinda Anderson

Edible water bowls are expanding in popularity, they provide beautiful scents, edible herbs and plants, and today Calinda shows us how to set one up with a twist.

• To start set up the bowl, choose a potting mix- the best quality soil with an inbuilt slow release fertilizer is recommended.

• For the plants, I’ve chosen a varieties of herbs that I like to eat, including: water chestnut, mint, basil mint, Lebanese’s cress, Brahmi- memory herb, Vietnamese mint, water parsley and Gotu Kola (Arthritis plant) a West Australian native.

• Placement of these plants is strategic to the plants height for the most attractive growing habits, with water chestnuts growing up to a meter high these plants are positioned in the center with the other tall reaching plants like the parsley and basil mint, the other mint types and Gotu Kola are fast growing and will look nice trailing over the edge so these are placed towards the edge, Lebanese cress again will trail and Brahmi the memory herb has a carpeting growing habit so these too are placed on the perimeter,

• Once happy with your plants positioning you can start to plant them. Then its time to fill the bowl with fine river gravel right to the brim, make sure the river gravel is fine as larger stones could conduct too much heat and burn the plants during the summer months.

• The river gravel will prevent mosquito larvae and algae, as normally with a bowl without river gravel would have fish and a pump added to stop this.

• Once you have filled the bowl you can add the water- filling it to the brim, during summer you would have to top up the bowl every 2-3 weeks and over winter maybe only once every 6 weeks.

• Using a bowl or vessel that’s sealed and water tight you can utilize it for any water plant, its easy and low maintenance, it will cost you just under $100 to fill a bowl just like this.

Woodvale Fish & Lily Farm
P: (08) 9409 9248
W: www.woodvalefishandlilyfarm.com.au