Tips on zero waste vegetable growing
Urban gardener’s advice on investing in things you can reuse and refilling plant food
Zero waste – it’s a hard target to reach for the millions of vegetable growers in this country. Many end up with gluts of produce every year, and find disposing of plastic compost bags and plant pots tricky. However, urban gardener and seasoned veg grower Cinead McTernan has found some ways to at least encourage zero waste.
McTernan, who explains her strategies in her new book, City Veg, offers the following top tips towards zero waste vegetable growing.
1. Invest in things you can reuse
‘You’ll want to reuse plastic pots and think about the stuff you generally put into the recycling. Is the plastic you throw away a good enough size to sow seeds in, for instance?’
2. Consider compost
‘In an ideal world you would make your own compost, but if you have a small kitchen garden that’s going to be unlikely. So, think about buying compost with a group of friends. Alternatively, in garden centres you can buy compost that comes in recyclable bags.’
3. Refill your plant food
‘You can now buy plant food in the way you would buy cereals and nuts. You just take your refill. Keep an eye out in your local garden centre for this. Big suppliers are looking to move towards this, so in the next year or two you will be getting dispensable units in garden centres.’
4. Research sundries
‘You can buy really good compostable bin bags for collecting garden waste (ecoliving.co.uk), reusable bags for compost, mulch and soil conditioners, and paper pots instead of plastic ones (edibleculture. co.uk). Sea-Chem offers its Shropshire Seaweed Organic Fertiliser in refillable bottles (sea-chem.co.uk).’
5. Use veg ends you might otherwise bin
‘There are some really good crops you can grow where you can eat everything. Carrots are great. You can grow them, eat the root and the leafy tops, making a pesto with it. And once you’ve taken the leafy top off and eaten the root, the bit that is left on the plate can be regrown to give you more leafy top.
‘Radish is another great veg, with its root and peppery leaves. Coriander is another good one.’
6. Put spare produce on your front garden wall
‘Pop spare crops on your front doorstep or take them to a school fair and swap them there. And if you have in-date sealed packets of seeds, take them to your local school or leave them on your wall for someone to take.’
7. Don’t ditch crops which you think have failed
‘Often, people think if their potatoes have started to sprout, they should throw them away. That is not the case. Just cut out the eyes.
‘And don’t chuck green tomatoes. Make chutney out of them.
‘Crop all those courgettes and make chutney with them. Make ratatouille and freeze it.’
8. Share seeds
‘To avoid gluts of lettuces, green beans and carrots which you’re never going to be able to get through, share packets of seeds with gardening neighbours and friends. Alternatively, use plug plants if you are really short of space, and just have one or two of what you want.
‘Also, plan ahead. If you sow, for instance, lettuces every couple of weeks, they will mature at slightly staggered times.’
City Veg by Cinead McTernan is published by Bloomsbury, priced £20. Available now.