Green Gardeners’ Guild Chat With: Ronnie and Veronika Hruba
Green Gardeners’ Guild Chat With: Ronnie and Veronika Hruba
Introducing gardeners to coir as the fantastic peat-free alternative that it is will always be one of our favourite moments. Making the switch from peat can be a challenge, but we find that once the change has been made, it’s hard to go back to peat. For many a good reason, too. So when we had the opportunity to chat with this week’s featured gardeners, we were delighted to know just how using our coir has made a difference in their garden.
This week, the Green Gardener’s Guild is delighted to chat with fans of coconut coir Ronnie and Veronika Hruba. They got in touch to tell us about a story involving one of their plants. After an accidental snap, they were looking to test different soils to plant the then-struggling plant into. Taking a look at the before and after photos of their plant after trying it in soil before our compost, it’s not difficult to see the benefits that planting it into coco coir have had!
Look at those beautiful green leaves! Well done!
As we love to do with all of our Green Gardener’s Guild, we asked Ronnie and Veronika a few questions about their experience in and with their garden.
They were delighted to tell us all about their garden. Ronnie told us that he has grown up surrounded by interesting plant life, saying: “I came from Czech Republic. I grew up in small farm in village outside the Prague. My grandad’s farm was big with lots hectares of land. So I had been growing up with veggies and fruits from our farm including our own milk, eggs, and honey. You name, it we had it all.”
When asked about their garden, Ronnie said: “I do absolutely love gardening. I think I have quite big garden. I do have some pots and hanging baskets, but also have boxes with veggies I am growing incuding courgettes peppers-chillis-tomatoes. I also have some mix of herbs. We just planted 50 hedges around. I also have some lavender plants with sunflowers and much more.”
With a lovely variety of plants in their garden, it’s safe to say that there must never be a dull moment when it comes to what you can find each day in Ronnie and Veronika’s garden.
They are very keen gardeners, too – and with a lot of plants outside, they also have let their passion for greenery be brought indoors as well. Ronnie told us, “I spend most of my free time in garden. I also have nice indoor plants mostly orchids. I just got another upcoming project to repotting huge money plant with rubber plant.” Really exciting to hear – and projects that we will certainly love to hear more about in future!
Orchids especially are one of our own favourites in our homes here at Coco&Coir; with beautiful blooms that can make any room that little bit more colourful, they are an ideal addition to any household.
Looking ahead, we asked Ronnie what sort of challenges they have been facing in their garden and what they are looking to improve on in their garden. Like all of us, there’s always something we can learn and improve on! Ronnie said, “I just love gardening. I’d say I’m getting better every year. My biggest challenge in gardening is to spot early some problems and find right way to sort it out. For example my lilies have been attacked and eaten by some little bugs but slimy. I actually managed to save my lilies ( I have had them for 3-4 years ). I don’t like cutting grass either – I prefer get coffee and ask my partner to do grass instead!”
Cutting the grass and keeping pests at bay sounds like an all too familiar challenge for us all, Ronnie – but one that we persevere with to keep our gardens looking their best! A tip for our fellow Green Gardeners: keep an eye out for pesky aphids and other insects that like to feast on your plants and use a pet-friendly solution to get rid of them. Your plants will thank you for it, too!
To finish, we also asked what Ronnie and Veronika thought to rate their garden out of 10 and what sort of improvements they still would like to see and do. Ronnie told us that: “If you would ask our garden is almost perfect to me. But is always time for improvement. In scale I would say 8 out of 10. I must say all our friends love our beautiful garden. It’s so nice to have lovely compliments after hard work that all we deserve.” That’s one of the best reasons we create our gardens – for the joy of sharing it with our friends and family. Good luck getting to that perfect 10/10!
As an extra, we wanted to see if there would be anything exotic that they wish they could grow in their garden, and the answer was an olive tree or avocados. Both of which we are also fans of here, and think they would be amazing additions to an exotic, dream garden.
Thank you to both Ronnie and Veronika for sharing their wonderful story with us. If you would also like to get in touch and have your gardening journey shared with our Green Gardener’s Guild, don’t hesitate to get in touch. We’ll send you £10-worth of loyalty points for every story we publish, too!
Find us on Instagram for more exciting gardening tips and tricks. See you in the next Green Gardener’s Guild chat!
