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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. 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.
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
15 cm.
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 forever 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 a 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; and 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!
_________________________________________________________________________________________________
Copyright by Linda Gray
Linda
Gray is a freelance writer and, with her partner has spent ten years
renovating a neglected acre of woodland. Find heaps of straight gardening
advice and pots of inspiration at http://www.flower-and-garden-tips.com
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