Plastic Free Tips for Gardeners (PDF document) prepared by David Perrow
Plant pots and trays
• Re-use any plastic pots you already have
• Recycle any you throw out. VWHDC do not recycle plant pots (put them in your Grey bin and they will be incinerated). Waterperry Garden Centre recycles them, or you can take them to OCC recycling centres and put them in the plastics recycling
• Avoid buying any more plastic pots by using alternatives such as:
- Clay/terracotta or fibre or coir plant pots
- Peat blocks – make your own using a blocking device
- Paper pots – use old newspapers around a ‘form’ such as a tin, or buy a paper –pot making kit
https://www.edenproject.com/learn/for-everyone/make-your-own-newspaper-seed-pots
Youtube video – make your own pots in 60 seconds
5-minute video Newspaper Pots for Seed Starting/Cuttings
video – simple newspaper plant pots
- Tins or plastic yoghurt pots or other such containers – use drainage holes
- Pots made from recycled or fully biodegradable material
- Use wooden seed trays
Plant labels and twine
• Re-use any plastic labels you already have by cleaning them each year
• Use wooden sticks (such as old lolly sticks) or other homemade labels you can write on instead of buying more plastic plant labels
• Use string or wool (“Twool”) in place of plastic wire
Compost
Compost always comes in plastic bags which cannot be recycled, so make your own compost if you can by home composting kitchen and garden waste (don’t compost any cooked food meat, fish or bones – put those in your kitchen caddy for VWHDC to collect kerbside). Re-use any compost bags to as grow bags for potatoes and other such crops
Grow your own!
Supermarket fruit and veg wrapped in plastic can be avoided if you grow your own! Use your garden, or apply for an allotment – or join an allotment gardening group such as the one which meets weekly at Peachcroft Farm, Abingdon email: bridget
Useful websites:
https://www.rhs.org.uk/about-the-rhs/Articles/plastic-policy
https://friendsoftheearth.uk/plastics/plasticfree-green-gardening-tips-tvs-alys-fowler
https://www.burgonandball.com/blogs/news/the-trend-for-plastic-free-gardening
http://www.theenglishgarden.co.uk/buyers-guide/green-gardening-recycled-garden-products/
http://www.myproductivebackyard.com.au/how-to-grow-2/towards-a-plastic-free-garden/