Taking the plastic out of our gardens
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Gardening on the Edge by Diana Wayland
Gardening is about natural things: plants and their life cycles, the seasons, the weather. But can it be sustainable?
I think the potential is there, but it is far from it at present.
Too much plastic, still too many pesticides, and still too much peat compost; despite a ban due in 2024.
Gardening TV programmes advocate using peat-free compost. Peatlands are carbon sinks; vital in our attempts to mitigate climate change. However, the nearest supplies that I know of have never got further north than Inverness.
If the sustainable product is not on the shelves locally, people are less likely to buy it.
What peat-free compost I have seen is still in single-use plastic bags which end up in landfill. We reuse ours, turned inside out, to take weeds which we leave in them for two years before adding the resulting rotted organic matter back to the garden, but we can only do that so many times.
Plastic is one of the problems in the horticultural industry. Plastic pots, labels, trays, watering cans, hoses, twine, seed trays, cloches, propagators, plant protection fabrics, even ornaments; the list is almost endless.
Pesticides and fertilisers also come in plastic containers, along with adding to the environmental problems because of the former's toxicity and the latter not increasing the health of the soil (in which case they should be less necessary!).
Plastic pots, trays and watering cans can be reused. So can blank labels; and the name labels sold with plants can be kept as records. But eventually they will have to be thrown away; to add to the mountain range of a material that, once made, cannot properly be unmade and has accumulated with terrifying speed in the 100 or so years we have had it.
The alternatives – wood, glass, metal – all have their own environmental issues, although I would argue that they are far less than more, and yet more, plastic.
So what can we do?
Small things. Ditch the pesticides. They kill 'good' bugs as well as 'bad' ones and I never use them outside (inside, horticultural soap only). Slug pellets kill hedgehogs and other wildlife. Biological remedies exist for some pests, physical barriers against slugs; and encouraging wildlife into the garden by feeding birds and hedgehogs (if you have them in your area) will also help. Make a small pond to encourage frogs and toads.
Grow your plants organically, without chemicals. I use seaweed meal, which comes in a cardboard box. Admittedly still in an inner plastic bag, though. And the liquid versions still come in plastic bottles. You can also make your own compost instead of buying commercial mixes. This will be a later article!
Some non-plastic gardening items have always been around. Metal watering cans, wooden-handled hand tools, glass cold frames or cloches (yes, breakable, but so is plastic after strong sunlight).
Think some up. Sow seeds in cardboard toilet roll tubes and plant out the whole thing; they distintegrate. Try making your own wooden seed trays and labels.
Continue using the reusable plastic gardening items you have for as long as you possibly can.
There seems to be a reluctance in the horticultural industry to seek alternative and more sustainable materials for its products. It is not alone. I have not noticed much change in the grocery industry's packaging.
We gardeners may have to lead the way.
