Garden Recycling: What It Is And How To Use It To Enhance Your Plants
Garden recycling is a great way to repurpose items for your plants. Instead of throwing household items away, think about if you can find a new use for them. You might have to get creative, but it's worth it to send as few items to the landfill as possible. Reusing what would otherwise become trash saves the energy and natural resources needed to make the new product you would have purchased. Not only is it better for the environment, but it'll save you money too.
You can use many different things from the home in your garden. You can save all types of items from the trash, then rather than purchasing fertilizer to feed your plants, food scraps can be broken down for their nutrients. Even the cuttings from your garden can be reused in a compost pile instead of thrown away. Almost any household item can be reworked as a pot or seed starter, so you'll never have to purchase a new one again.
Add green garbage to the soil
Green garbage is categorized as the natural items you would usually throw away, like food scraps. Instead of tossing them in the trash, you can recycle them in one of two ways. One option is to add them to your compost. This is also a great way to make use of your brown scraps like cardboard or clippings from your garden. Once your compost looks dark brown and crumbles when you touch it, it's ready to be used as fertilizer.
Eggshells are great calcium-rich food scraps you can save from the landfill and recycle as fertilizer in your garden. Grind up the shells as finely as possible to get the best results. If you were to leave them whole or crush them up with your hands, it would take your plants a year to break down the nutrients. Instead, wash them and blend them in a coffee grinder or food processor until they become a powder. Then incorporate it into the soil in your garden, so it's easier for the roots to absorb the nutrients.
Use almost anything as a planter
Upcycling planters is another way to use items you would otherwise throw away. They don't have to be a conventional planters, so consider old kitchenware like mugs, teapots, or bowls. If you like quirky decor, you can even use old rain boots or children's toys as homes for your plants. When there's nothing you can use that you already own, thrift stores and estate sales are your next best option. It's better for the environment to buy used than purchase something new.
If you're looking for something to start seeds in, milk jugs and fruit containers work great until you need to transplant them. It's also essential to ensure there are drainage holes in the pot for your plant's health. You could drill or cut holes depending on what you've recycled, however, if that's impossible, another option is to add a layer of rocks to the bottom of the pot or to layer the nursery planter in the decorative one.