Vegetable plots with zero waste

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.

“Zero waste falls in two areas. You can think about what you’re buying, such as pots, how you are buying compost and that sort of thing; then you can think about what you are growing that will give you no waste because you can eat the whole thing, including the roots and the tips.”

McTernan, offers the following top tips towards zero waste vegetable growing.

INVEST IN THINGS YOU CAN RE-USE

“You’ll want to re-use plastic pots and think about the stuff you generally put into the recycling.”

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. You can buy compost that comes in recyclable bags.”

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 where you just push like you would milk, getting your plant food in a litre carton and paying for it accordingly.”

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).”

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”

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. In our climate, it’s hard to get bigger ones to ripen at the end of the season. Make chutney out of them.

“Crop all those courgettes and make chutney with them too. Do a bit of research on your crops and you will find most things can be eaten.”