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Garden

Your garden has endless potential to waste less. Not only through growing food without packaging or transport, but through making compost from greenwaste and food scraps, harvesting water, reusing and repurposing countless things while having fun doing it!

Waste less growing your own food:

  • You will save, money, packaging, and fuel by growing at least some of your own food.
  • Pick what you like to eat and is easy to grow. It’s amazing what you can grow in a small space and there truckloads of information on how. Gardening can be really enjoyable and therapeutic and it’s great to get kids involved for all sorts of reasons.
  • You might have neighbours with too much garden to manage who would share their space for a share of veges
  • Consider turning at least some of your current lawn into veges.

Waste less making mulch and compost:

It’s way easier than you think. There’s help on this website and elsewhere.

  • If you can’t compost and you aren’t into Sharewaste, at least don’t dump your greenwaste (lawn and garden clippings). It costs when you do plus it creates green house gases.
  • Unless it contains weed seeds it will always be a valuable mulch. Fine stuff like leaves, soft stems, or grass clippings can be spread straight on. You will be amazed how quickly it breaks down, suppressing weeds as it does.
  • The “chop and drop” technique saves you spreading it.
  • Spread slightly coarser greenwaste on the lawn and run over it with a rotary mower if you don’t have a mulcher. You can pile it up somewhere and hire a mulcher. 

Waste less buying compost in bulk:

If you don’t make you own, buy in bulk rather than smaller bags. If you don’t have a trailer get it delivered. It keeps in a pile, and might inspire you to add organic matter to make more compost. Save plastic packaging and money.

Waste less repurposing stuff for your garden: 

  • Used polythene pipe can be formed into hoops and pegged into the ground. Throw over birdnetting or old net curtains to protect against birds or insects. 
  • You can cut the bottoms out of large clear plastic juice or oil containers and place them over seedlings for a warmer early start in the garden. It helps with slug control too. Wash and recycle them when you no longer need them.
  • Rescued windows or polycarbonate roofing can be re-used to make coldframes or a glasshouse if you have some basic carpentry skills.
  • Used reinforcing iron, reinforcing mesh, bamboo, hazel, willow or manuka stakes make plant supports rather than buying plastic or new metal supports. A simple tepee shape of 3 or 4 poles fastened at the top works well. Bits of old trellis are also useful. All sorts of old pipe structures or pallets placed vertically can be repurposed as supports for climbing plants.
  • Old panty hose cut into strips, T-shirt yarn, reused twine or string are all great plant ties. Tyre inner tubes make heavier duty ties for staking and training trees.
  • If you don’t have permanent vege beds (maybe you rent) you can make temporary beds out of things like old drawers or suitcases, used wool bales, old planter boxes, big containers, half barrels. Basically anything non-toxic that you can fill with suitable organic matter, soil, compost.  Avoid customwood because it swells with moisture. If whatever you are using doesn’t drain, put a layer of stones, broken china or terracotta in the bottom. The nicer pieces can be saved for mosaics
  • Used tyres work too You can make potato (tomato or strawberry) towers by stacking old tires and filling them with the tuber/plant plus straw,soil, and compost. Likewise form a cylinder with old wire netting. Google instructions for these space-saving towers.
  • Drawstring plastic mesh bags (like onions come in) placed over bunches of fruit stops birds depriving you of that delicious tree-ripened fruit.
  • Left over acrylic paint can be used to seal pruning cuts.
  • Old woollen carpet can be laid down to suppress weeds around plantings or just areas that aren’t planted yet.
  • Smashed china or terracotta can be given to mosaic artists or put it at the bottom of poorly drained plant containers.

Waste less propagating plants and growing from seed:

  • Did you know you can get free tomatoes by sticking tomato laterals in the ground as soon as you take them off. A good proportion will strike.
  • Other veges can regrow if you harvest the stalks but leave or replant the roots. Give spring onions, leeks, bok choy, celery, lettuce and fennel a go.
  • All sorts of plants are actually easy to propogate if you know how
  • Lots of seeds are easy to save and grow from year to year. Be aware that hybrid seeds don’t necessarily turn out as you expect.
  • The seed containing pulp of tomatoes, pumpkin, melons and cucumber can just be scraped onto a paper towel.  Fold it over or lay another sheet on top and put it somewhere sunny and dry.
  • Even easier is letting a few plants that readily go to seed like coriander, cottage garden flowers and lettuce self seed throughout your garden. If you don’t like it where it is pull it out later (remember it is probably stopping a weed growing there) or transplant it elsewhere.  
  • Join the seed library so you can swap seed and get to try different heritage varieties.
  • Re-use plant pots for your seedlings. Toilet roll inners, or pots folded out of waste paper have the advantage of being able to be planted with your seedling to reduce transplant shock. Re-use plastic plant labels or write on saved popsicle sticks. Use takeaway chopsticks as row markers (although hopefully you carry your own reuseable cutlery)

Waste less water:

Rainwater collection is very easy from the guttering of your house shed or garage for outside use. Store in repurposed plastic barrels or drums. Elevate if you want some pressure Add comfrey or other ingredients like manure or seaweed if you want to make liquid fertilisers. Soapy water collected from the shower or washing up can be splashed over aphid-infested plants.