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Environmental Issues By Alan J Hartley |
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General Re-cycling In The Garden |
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Different types of
packaging found in the supermarkets can often be put to good use with a
little thought. The string bags that oranges usually come in can be
saved to hang up your onions when you harvest them in the Autumn. They
are strong and will let the air circulate round the onions to ripen them
and help keep them over winter in your garage or outhouse without
letting them rot. As the Autumn is coming
many people will be thinking about what seeds to buy for next year to
sow in the spring. Some such as Sweet Pea, Beans and Tomatoes will get
away quicker if they are started in old cardboard toilet roll inners.
The plant can be grown in them just as if it were in a small pot, but
when it is ready to be planted out the whole cardboard roll with plant
in can be planted. The cardboard will rot in the ground without
disturbing the roots of the young plant ensuring a better start.
Also with regard to
planting beans in the spring, the planting trench will benefit from a
thickish layer of old newspapers in the bottom. Fluff and dust out of
the vacuum cleaner can also be put into the trench. This will all help
to reduce water loss in the row and encourage root growth.
When you buy vegetables from a shop
they often come in a clear plastic bag and a small number of these could
be used to germinate pots of seeds or propagate cuttings in the same way
as pop bottles. Simply place the damp pot of seeds into the upside down
bag and tie the bag round the bottom of the pot. Other vegetables such as tomatoes
come from the shops in small plastic trays which can be used as little
seed trays as long as you remember to puncture the bottom to allow some
drainage.
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Tips
Unusual
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Large
plastic pop bottles can be used in different ways in the garden. The
tops can be cut off several inches down the bottle with a stout pair of
scissors, and then they can be up ended and used as mini propagators
over pots of cuttings and seeds either in the house or garden in the
spring to give a little added protection. Another use for them next year
is to cut off the bottoms and partially bury the bottle, top down,
(minus its screw top) next to a valuable plant that needs regular
watering in the garden. Then a quantity of water can be poured into the
cut open end of the bottle which will go straight out of the buried top,
down to the plants roots without puddling the ground round the plant.
This will discourage the plant from making shallow roots that will
suffer in a dry spell and encourage deeper rooting. The plant will also
get a measured amount of water each time. 
The
last things that I can think of for re-cycling in the garden are perhaps
the most obvious and those are old plant pots and labels. Labels can be
washed and cleaned with a small piece of wire wool quite effectively. It
takes a little bit of elbow grease to remove the old names on them, but
packets of labels are very expensive for what they are these days. Lots
of people keep old pots from when they buy new plants at the garden
centres, but a lot more could be re-cycled instead of simply throwing
them away. They should be washed before they are re-used to prevent any
disease or other problems from spreading. You may not have a use for
them but you may know of a friend who grows plants for other people who
could use them Alternatively you may come across a local gardening guild
or other organisation that could make use of them. To people that need
them and have not got them, plant pots are very expensive to buy.