Plant husbandry – Receptacle for growing medium – Sheet of plants
Reexamination Certificate
1999-04-08
2001-05-29
Swiatek, Robert P. (Department: 3643)
Plant husbandry
Receptacle for growing medium
Sheet of plants
Reexamination Certificate
active
06237285
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
a) Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a plant cultivation mat to be disposed, in particular, on artificial ground such as the roof-top of a building, veranda, terrace, and others for growing various plants (grasses) such as, in particular, lawn or other earth-covering plants, flowering plants, vegetables, and so forth.
b) Description of Prior Arts
It has heretofore been a practice, when growing plants at a place having a flat laying surface like the roof-top of a building, terrace, veranda, and others, to form a water-prevention layer and a root-protection layer, or to lay a sheet, on which soil is heaped up to grow lawn or other earth-covering plants, flowering plants, vegetables, and so forth (see: for example, laid-open gazette of Japanese patent application No. 4-99411).
It has also been a practice to lay square boxes (named plant cultivation mats or grass growing mats), each of which has an opening in its bottom part and is disposed in a recessed form with its top part being open upward, spread over the entire flat laying surface of the roof-top of a building, and others, followed by filling soil in the square boxes to grow various plants. Such plant growing facility possesses advantages such as easy laying and removal, and it can also be used in existing buildings.
With the abovementioned plant installation, however, when walkers walk on the top part of the soil as layed down, the level of the soil is lowered by the treading pressure of the walker to become solid and hard, with the consequent difficulty in walking on it. On the other hand, in the greening movement with use of lawn, which has become flourishing in recent years, in particular, free walking on the lawn is the requisite condition, hence the tendency is that public walkers should indispensably be permitted to walk on the top surface part of the soil at the plant (grass) growing facility.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention has been made in view of the abovementioned problem, and aims at providing a plant cultivation mat (or grass growing mat) for carrying out the plant cultivation on any artificial ground, whereby the public in general becomes able to walk on the soil filled up over the plant cultivation mat or on the top surface of the plant thus grown.
It is therefore a primary object of the present invention to provide a plant cultivation mat (or grass growing mat) which is capable of withstanding the treading pressure, when spread over the entire ground surface of the roof top, the veranda, the terrace, or the like, and yet of giving comfortable and restful sight to those who look at it.
According to the present invention, in one aspect thereof, there is provided a plant cultivation mat, comprising a cell disposed in a recessed form with its top part being open upward, and having water-passage ports perforated in the vicinity of its bottom part; and pillar member erected to a height not exceeding the top end part of the lateral wall of the cell. The pillar member should preferably be erected in a plurality of numbers.
According to the present invention, in another aspect thereof, there is provided a plant cultivation mat, comprising cells disposed in a recessed form with its top part being open upward, and having water-passage ports perforated in the vicinity of its bottom part; a plurality of pillar members erected to a height not exceeding the top end part of the lateral wall of the cells, and connecting ribs to join these cells together.
It is further preferable to have a hole perforated on the top part of the pillar member at any arbitrary location thereof.
The foregoing objects, other objects, and the detailed construction as well as the function of the plant cultivation mat according to the present invention will become more apparent and understandable from the following detailed description thereof, when read in conjunction with the accompanying drawing.
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Anonymous, McConnkey Co. 1998 Catalog, 1998, p. 28.
Kumura Kazuo
Uchida Shinji
Yoshida Minoru
Yoshioka Takaharu
Armstrong Westerman Hattori McLeland & Naughton LLP
Kyodo KY-TEC Corp.
Swiatek Robert P.
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