Fabulous Fibre

Tall coconut palms bending against the sunset on a remote tropical beach makes a truly tropical vacation. Coconut juices sipped from half -opened young fruits are part of the romantic scenery of a tropical resort . Here you can stretch your legs and be one with nature. Then there was this coconut head carved out of an old ripe coconut fruit I saw the other day. It was a funny looking head of a monkey. A fine example where the coconut skin and fibre right to its hard shell are fully utilised to create a unique craft work. The cupped ears are also made from the coconut shell .

Remove the hard shell and cut the thick skin and fibre into vertical strips (as shown above) and you'll get the best hanging container for pitcher plants.

Strip off the fibres from the skin cover and thick shell. Soon you'll have yards of loose coconut fibres that are ideal for mulching .

In my gardening work I always prefer to use coconut fibres as mulch because they are locally available, retain moisture well and decompose into organic matter and in the process help break up the soil and condition it as well. In certain cases the fibres are meshed and formed into a mat and pegged to steep slopes as growing medium for grass seeds or cover plants to prevent soil erosion. In other instances, the fibres can be used as infill material for thin cushion or sleeping mats in place of cotton. I guess the only limit to its use is our imagination.