So I made a lot of stupid mistakes that were very painful to recover from:
I put pots on the terrace and filled it with mud - stains the wall, low yield.
I put Zinc sheets+pots in the mud as a barrier - attracts rats - mud binds to everything, leaves get in - difficult to sweep.
Now I’m about to make another mistake: coconut husks - I have a large collection. What should I do with them?
My head is telling me ‘HugelKulture’ which is a fancy word for burying timber in mud - the wood rots creating airs-spaces for the roots of a vegetable bed which is built on top of the wood.. (but you need a lot of compost).. coconut husks take a long time to rot.. and it’s a lot of work removing them if it flops..
I could set them on fire or turn them into charcoal but polluting/anti-social
I tried putting them in a Sintex tank with water and tried to make coco-peat .. now I have to clean out that Sintex so.. they do this in Bengal where it rains incessantly but I live in BLR so..
You could use 20% coconut husk in any and every pot/soil you use without worrying about it. It retains water just right and helps create some air pockets too. But don’t use big pieces. Ideally I would say they should be chopped to small pieces (of around 1-2cm cube each).
If you don’t wish to use soil, use coco peat. You can buy it at most nurseries. Its a good draining medium and plants thrive in it. Else you can continue using the same soil. Just put them on a stand and put a tray underneath the stand to collect the waste water.
I’m not sure if plants will grow in coconut husk. Its not a well draining medium.