Good ideas going to waste
D
ESPITE the great “green” push that’s swept through gardening, mountains of garden rubbish are still ending up in landfill sites.
The silly thing is, the same people who take car-loads of hedge-clippings, lawn mowings and tree prunings to the tip or pay the council to collect them from their garden gate, are then buying bags of compost for the garden.
Composting your green waste saves you serious cash, as well as being good for the environment. As brownie points go (or should that be greenie points?), composting is as good as changing to low-energy light bulbs and saying “no” to supermarket carrier bags in favour of reusable shopping bags. But unfortunately composting hasn’t caught on in quite the same way.
Usually it’s keener gardeners or new produce growers who make compost; their gardens need lots of well-rotted organic matter and they generate the most waste.
The surprise composters are parents with children who learn about the environment at school and encourage their family to have compost bins and wormeries. This is, of course, all to the good.
But that leaves a lot of people who feel composting is not for them. Maybe they think it’s too much trouble or that a compost heap means rats, flies or nasty smells.
Some people worry that a compost heap will be an eyesore, or that it won’t rot down, or that they simply do not have the room.
The answer to all these problems is easy: use a bin.
Instead of rubbish piled up in a messy open heap, a compost bin can be tucked away out of sight behind a garage or shed, screened off behind a fence panel, or even at the back of a border where it’s hidden by plants. In America, keen kitchen gardeners often stand a compost bin full of green waste in the centre of their veg patch so the nutrient-rich “goo” generated by the decomposing contents seeps out and benefits their crops.
Bins work without much effort from you. Unlike compost heaps, which need proper management, you can chuck rubbish into a bin any time you have soft leafy green waste to get rid of. The bin keeps the contents warm and moist so it rots down readily.
Keep the lid on and you’ll avoid flies or smells and if you stand the bin on a concrete base, a large paving slab or several thicknesses of small mesh wire netting over soil you’ll keep rodents out.
In three months in summer or six in winter, your compost will be ready to use. Spread it on the surface of beds and borders as a mulch, dig it into new ground to improve the soil structure or work some in at any time to beef up the soil before planting or sowing.
All sorts of compost bins are available to buy. When there’s no hiding place, a composter that looks like an old-fashioned beehive makes a stylish addition to the garden. And even better news – going green can save a fortune so what are you waiting for?
TIME TO BE GETTING BACK TO YOUR ROOTS