- 10 Free Gardening Products
- By Linda Gray
One of the pleasurable spin-offs
in organic gardening is finding alternative ways of coming up
with the same, if not better, end result.....
Household throwaways can be valuable
to the alternate enthusiast. Here are ten recyclable ideas to
make gardening a little less hard on the pocket!
1. Hedge clippings: Instead of burning or direct composting,
beg, borrow or even buy, if the quantity justifies the price,
an electric garden muncher.
Branches up to an inch in diameter
are posted into a slot and the machine munches them up into small
chips. Spread these chips thickly around shrubs or fruit trees
to help keep moisture in, and control the temperature of the
soil.
2. Food Waste: All food waste must be composted. Composting
is becoming quite an art form, and special composting bins can
be bought, or very simply made.
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There are many different theories
and each gardener will find his or her preferred way. Keeping
the compost fairly warm is the overall key to a good result.
Or, if you're in no hurry, simply keep adding to a heap, and
dig out the bottom when required. Sieve before using and the
compost will be ready for planting small plants and even seeds.
3. Old carpets, large damaged cardboard boxes; and
similar materials can be laid over the vegetable plot in autumn
to help prevent those early spring weeds appearing. Spread over
a whole patch and weigh down with stones or logs. Lift off on
a sunny day in early spring a few days before digging.. |
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4. Paint trays: Keep old roller painting trays and
similar containers for seed trays. Punch a few holes in the bottom
for drainage. Add a little fine gravel before filling with seed
compost. Seed trays shouldn't be deeper than 15cm.
5. Yoghurt pots: All plastic yoghurt or dessert pots
can be washed and saved for re-potting seedlings. Make a hole
in the bottom of each and add a little fine gravel before filling
with compost or soil..
6. Glass jars: Glass jars with sealable lids are excellent
for storing seeds, beans and peas for planting next year. (Safe
from mice as well) After washing the jars, dry in the oven to
remove all traces of moisture before storing your seeds. Collect
dark glass jars, or wrap paper round clear jars to prevent seeds
being damaged by light.
7. Ice Lolly sticks: Make perfect row markers in your seed
trays or greenhouse beds. The wooden ones won't last for ever
but you can at least write on them with pen, pencil or crayons!
8. Wire coat hangers: Make mini-cloches with discarded or
broken wire coat hangers. Pull into a square shape. Place the
hook in the soil and push down gently until the natural bend
in the wire rests on top of the soil. Place another a short distance
away in your seed bed to create two ends of a cloche. Now throw
over a sheet of plastic and hold down with logs or stones.
Note: this will work only when
creating very small cloches.
9. Clear plastic: Keep any clear plastic containers that
could be placed upside down over a plant. Cut a mineral water
bottle in half to make two handy individual cloches. Large sheets
of clear plastic from packaged household items are fine for throwing
over mini coat hanger cloches.
10. Aluminium bottle tops: Keep aluminium tops from milk or juice
bottles, and also coloured foil around beer or wine bottles.
Thread together to make bird scarer. Simply thread with thick
cotton and hang on your fruit bushes before the birds find the
new fruits.
Look out for other tools for
the garden from kitchen throwaways such as: old kitchen spoons
and forks for transplanting tiny plants in the greenhouse. Leaky
buckets for harvesting small quantities of potatoes, carrots
etc; light wooden boxes for harvesting salads through the summer,
and transporting pots etc;
Keep an eye on that rubbish bag
and turn today's throwaways into tomorrow's tools! |
