I somehow feel that as new events take over at an astonishing rate, it is easy to forget how we all stared in horror at the forest fires in Australia earlier this year. It seemed to really bring the plight of our planet and the effects of global warming to the front of our minds and to spur us on to find yet another little things we could change in our lives that might in some way make even just a tiny difference.
Now, as the planet breathes a sigh of relief as air pollution all over the world improves and the canals of Venice run clean for the first time in decades, it is even more obvious that humans have an massive impact on the health of the planet. And, fortunately, we can help the planet even further by doing one of the few things that we are still permitted to do - gardening. The benefits of gardening to the planet are too numerous to go into here but one things we can do whilst gardening is find new uses for some of our household rubbish items.
As usual, since January, I have been saving bits and bobs from our household rubbish that I know will come in handy on the allotment over the next few months. There are three main reasons why I choose to save rubbish in this way. Firstly, if rubbish can be repurposed for something else then it saves it going directly into landfill or for recycling. Secondly, if I can use a piece of rubbish to do a job then I don't have to go out and buy something else to do that job and that saves resources. Thirdly, it saves me money. In these weird times when we shouldn't be going out, saving these items also means that we can use things that we have to hand and we don't have to try to go shopping for them.
So, which pieces of household rubbish should you be saving and what can you do with them?
1) Mushroom/vegetable containers - we always have a big stack of these under our sink as they are very handy for all sort of things. Every day we use one on the kitchen worksurface whilst making dinner to collect our vegetable scraps and then we can tip the scraps easily into our compost bucket, which in turn will be emptied into our compost bin when we are next on the allotment.
They are also useful for putting under flower pots so that water doesn't run out when you water the plant. Or, you can stab drainage holes in the bottom with a skewer and use them as seed trays for sowing a few seeds in. If the vegetable tray is transparent and has a lid it can be used as a mini greenhouse so is ideal for seed sowing. Profiterole containers make lovely little domed greenhouses! Come harvest time, they are handy little containers for collecting your crops.
2) Clear plastic bottles - these are useful for protecting small plants when you first plant them out. Carefully cut the bottom off with a sharp knife and then place them over the plant as a cloche. This shelters the plant from the worst of the weather, particularly the cold, and also offers a bit of protection from slugs. Make sure you only use colourless, clear bottles so that light can get through to the plants. If you have opaque ones (yoghurt drinks), translucent ones (milk bottles) or green ones, then these can be used to put over the ends of canes to stop people hurting themselves on them.
3) Yoghurt pots - these can be used as flower pots for sowing seeds into or, bigger ones, can be used to pot on plants as they grow. They can also be cut into strips and used as plant labels, using a permanent pen, such as a Sharpie.
4) Food tubs - things such as gravy containers, cornflour, cocoa and Pringles tubes can all be used as flower pots. You will need to pierce the bottom to allow water to drain out of it. Long Pringles tubes can be cut down to a more useful size and you can use the bottom end and the top end if you put the lid back on. I particularly like making use of this type of container because the combination of cardboard lined with foil make them unsuitable for recycling so it is nice to find something else to do with them before they end up in landfill.
5) Egg boxes - these are useful if you are growing seed potatoes. It is best to "chit" the potatoes for a few weeks to grow nice strong green shoots before you plant them out and egg boxes are the perfect containers to hold the potatoes in. You can also sow seeds into egg boxes and they can be torn up and added to the compost bin too.
6) Toilet rolls - the cardboard inner tubes of toilet rolls can also be used as planting containers. To do this, stand the tubes inside a seed tray or mushroom container and fill each tube up with potting compost. One seed can then be planted into each tube and allowed to grow into a seedling. Whilst the plant is growing, mould will grow on the cardboard. When the plant is big enough to plant out, the whole tube can be planted into the ground, where it will rot down. This method is particularly suitable for sweetcorn, which hates having its roots disturbed during the planting out process.
7) Juice cartons - these can be used to protect worksurfaces from water draining out of the bottom of small flower pots. To do this, rinse them out well then carefully cut one side off it. Small flower pots can now be placed inside.
8) Lolly sticks - these are useful as plant labels and can be easily written on in pencil or permanent pen.
9) Butter and margarine tubs - these can be used as beer slug traps - details to follow in a later post.
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