To most people gardening is one of the most green, organic and environmentally friendly things you can do. How much harm can you do with a plant pot and some potting soil, right?
In actual fact there are lots of ways in which you can make your gardening exploits more environmentally sound than they already are, and with a bit of work you’ll be one step closer to self-sustainability. Firstly, there’s the issue of compost. Everyone will have heard of a compost bin, and you might know of a huge brick one constructed at the bottom of a neighbour’s garden, but you’d never have one yourself. Compost bins don’t need to be that big and cumbersome, though, and you can have one in your back garden that’s the same size as a dustbin.
In many areas the local council provides access to this kind of resource, with many people making use of a lock-tite kitchen caddy for kitchen waste. If you ask your local council you might also find there are considerable discounts on compost bins too, so you can transfer waste from your kitchen to outside, and once it’s broken down it will fertilise your plants. Instead of having to remember when the caddies go out for collection, you can add to your compost bin whenever you like, and always get something positive from it at the end. Remember that no cooked food, meat, fish or dairy products can go into your compost. It must be all-organic materials from paper and cardboard to vegetable peelings and fruit leftovers.
Tip: Save your citrus fruit peelings to put on your flowerbeds, as they act as a deterrent for cats.
You can also make your own compost bin from chicken wire and broken wooden palettes drilled together. Try Google and you’ll find tons of how-to guides on the internet for compost bins and wormeries.
With regards to growing plants, regular household items that you might discard can be particularly helpful. For instance, empty margarine and butter tubs are great for sprouting seeds (just put a piece of kitchen roll inside that’s damp with warm water and put the seed onto that). This speeds up the germinating process, so that you can plant the seedlings quicker. Also, large glass jars are great for sprouting avocado seeds, or even alfalfa shoots to eat with salad. These kind of edible shoots grow in just two to three days if you wash them regularly and move them between the airing cupboard and sunlight.
Hold onto a two-litre soft-drink bottle once it’s empty, if you have a problem with cats doing their ‘business’ in your garden. Nobody knows quite why, but many cats are afraid of water inside bottles like this, so if you stand one in your flower bed they might just stay away. Both this and the citrus peeling methods are animal-friendly. They cause no harm to the animal, they’re just deterrents and will give your seedlings a chance to grow into full plants.
Finally, save your old, frumpy knitted jumpers and holed socks for your delicate plants in the winter. Just wrapping these around them won’t make a difference, but you can potentially save a plant by first wrapping it in wool, and then covering it with a light tarpaulin or specially made plant cover for the winter. This method is especially useful for exotic tree saplings that you don’t want inside the house, but would die in British winter.
These are by no means all of the measures you can take to make your garden a greener place, so when you’re handling your household’s cardboard, paper, tin, plastic and glass waste take time to consider whether you could recycle it in the garden too. Even a glass jar left on the porch will collect rain water that’s much better for your indoor plants than the tap variety. Using items you’ve already used around the house could improve your garden, save you money and save you time and space too.
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