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Community Corner

Celebrate Earth Day Every Day

Recycle, reuse and repurpose everyday items in your garden

Happy Earth Day!

 

I know, I know; every day is Earth Day. That is true, but it’s nice to have a specific day to shine a spotlight on the important issues of environmental health. Every choice each of us makes in our daily lives either helps or hinders our planet’s wellbeing. And Earth Day is a perfect opportunity to consider how our own daily routines affect the environmental big picture. 

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As gardeners, it’s easy for us to forget how un-green our green-thumbed endeavors really are. From my perspective, the horticulture industry, as a whole, is wickedly degrading to the environment. And our gardens often require huge amounts of unsustainable resources to maintain. The good news is, with a bit of clever forethought and solid followthrough, it can be less so. 

Personally, I use Earth Day to make environmental vows relating to my own home gardening practices. Last year, I vowed to give up my heavy use of peat moss, a highly unsustainable product I often used when amending my garden. Instead, I began composting leaves, which promise to perform similarly, if not better, as a water absorbing, soil-building amendment. A year later and no painful withdrawal symptoms to report!

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The year before that, I vowed to begin vermicomposting all of my kitchen scraps. Two years later, I now have two thriving worm bins that provide large amounts of nutrient-rich worm castings that I use regularly in my veggie garden and to top dress my house plants. No doubt, my garden’s health is better for it. 

And this year? The search for an alternative to round-up, for massive weed control, begins today. 

There’re a million and one ways in which we gardeners can limit waste from escaping our homes and gardens. And have a grand ol’ time doing so! Following are a few ideas I’ve learned from other gardeners: 

  • Save a retired shipping pallet from a slow death in a landfill and repurpose it into a vertical garden. (See the photo gallery for instructions.)
  • Water smartly. Begin watering more deeply, yet less frequently. Reduce water-loving plants and group the remaining close together, creating watering zones. No need to water your entire landscape when only a small majority of plants require it. 
  • Reuse pill bottles to hold seeds. Be sure to add a bit of rice to absorb moisture.
  • Save torn stockings to use as soft ties when staking plants.
  • Reuse egg cartons for seed starting. Once they graduate from seedling school, transfer them to the strawberry containers you’ve been hoarding.
  • Chopsticks can be used when starting climbing plants, from seed, in containers.
  • Befuddled when looking at your increasing pile of empty plant containers? Many can be recycled. (Be sure they are completely free of dirt.) Athens-Clarke allows plastics 1-7 (this includes clean plant tags). Look on the bottom of the container to determined if it’s accepted. If you see letters instead of a number, this website will help determine its corresponding number. Also, many nurseries and garden centers will take them back. Just ask. Don’t forget to keep several for yourself. They come in handy when you’re splitting up your perennials to give as gifts to gardening friends.
  • Old blinds, cut in segments, and popsicle sticks make great plant markers. 
  • Use old shower curtains for messy gardening projects.
  • Stitch those onion and potato mesh bags together and use to protect your ripening blueberries from those pesky birds.
  • Use newspaper to make seedling cups.
  • Vintage, retired tools, like rakes or shovels make cool garden art and provide a structure for your climbers. 
  • Make a trip into your basement or attic. There’s bound to be the mother lode of items worth repurposing.

We could do this all day! 

Do I think these simple shifts in the way we reuse, recycle and repurpose items in the garden will save our planet from environmental degradation? Of course not. Do I think that every single, well-meaning gesture makes some difference? Absolutely.

 

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