Recycled waste to be used in your garden

[maddie]

I just thought we could share our ideas on how we can recycle what we have for our gardening needs..
We have one excellent thread on making paper pots for starting seeds.

Recycled seed starters
Toilet paper rolls cut into two/three inch bits make excellent plant starters.. for cuttings and seeds.
Egg trays made from papier mache could be another excellent seed starter.
Paper cups/ cardboard cartons are all excellent organic plant containers.

Seed packets
Got mail... Cut the envelopes into two halves Cut away i cm from one side both at the top and the bottom .. now seal the flaps and you can store seeds for the next season. These packet could be neatly stored away in a small box.

Plant markers
Don't throw away Popsicle sticks, these can become your plant markers. Just write the names of the plants on the stick with a indelible marker and you have plant markers for a long time to come.

Water
Water from soaking your lentils and washing vegetables could be used to water your plants. They contain extra minerals and vitamins for your plants . They could act as very light thing fertilizer.

Soda bottles could double up as your drip irrigation system when you have to be away from home. Fill the bottles with water, make a small hole in the cap and dig a hole near the plants and plant the bottle deep into the soil. This could prevent your plants from drying out in summer due to lack of watering.
Soda with little holes drilled into them and connected to your watering hose could double up as sprinklers.

You could add other ways of recycling waste to make them useful in your garden.

 

[Jessi]

Water
Water from soaking your lentils and washing vegetables could be used to water your plants. They contain extra minerals and vitamins for your plants . They could act as very light thing fertilizer.

I actually do this one year round for my inside plants. Any time I have soaking water, I split it up among my plants indoors. I don't like letting the water go to waste and I figure the plants could use the extra lovin', too!

 

[claudine]

These are great ideas. I often use Popsicle sticks as plant markers, mostly when I plant something outdoors. Without it, I'd probably forget where my seeds are and I'd have to wait until they germinate

 

[ChanellG]

Soda bottles could double up as your drip irrigation system when you have to be away from home. Fill the bottles with water, make a small hole in the cap and dig a hole near the plants and plant the bottle deep into the soil. This could prevent your plants from drying out in summer due to lack of watering.

These are good ideas, Maddie. I have started running water into a basin while waiting for it to warm up instead of just letting the tap run. I then use that water for the plants.

I saw an interesting idea for using plastic bottles as sprinklers where you put the holes in the bottle instead of the cap. I guess for it to work and for you to be able to refill the bottle you would have to put the holes near the top of it.

 

[maddie]

You could use mason jars with LED bulbs and battery stuck to the lid as your lighting for lawns/garden when you have a barbecue or a party
Look up this link for further instructions. http://www.casasugar.com/DIY-Mason-Jar-Garden-Lights-1899655

 

[ACSAPA]

I never thought of using the water that beans an lentils soak in to water plants.
I have a kid so I've been doing the popsicle stick plant markers for years because we go through a lot of popsicles in the summer.

The way I most often recycle waste in gardening is just to grow new plants from kitchen leftovers. Celery, leeks, scallions, romaine lettuce and cabbage can regrow some new growth if you keep the root part and plant it.
You won't get another full size cabbage, but you'll get more food out of that cabbage than if you just threw away the root part. Scallions and leeks grow almost completely back, so it's like "Hey, free bonus scallion."

 

[ChanellG]

The way I most often recycle waste in gardening is just to grow new plants from kitchen leftovers. Celery, leeks, scallions, romaine lettuce and cabbage can regrow some new growth if you keep the root part and plant it...

I've been experimenting with that a bit. When you "regrow" your lettuce, do you leave it in water, or do you place it in soil? I find find I get good results for a brief period and then the plant quickly dies.

I've tried celery a couple times with no success. I'm pretty sure I know where I went wrong, but I don't really eat celery so it's not a high priority for me.

I plucked some seeds off a night blooming Jasmine when I was out walking the dog a couple days ago. I'm drying them out and hoping I'll be able to grow new plants from them.

 

[Pat]

I cut the top from the pineapple plant we got from the store, put it in some soil and it has been doing very well. I had to bring the plant indoors for the winter. The plant should grow and produce a new pineapple this summer. This is the first time I have planted a pineapple top.

 

[ChanellG]

I have a pineapple top sitting in water now over at my mom's. The cats knocked it over last week, but hopefully it will be okay in its new location. (Those cats are driving me nuts!) I've never grown a pineapple plant before, but my dad had two and the both produced new pineapples.

 

[maddie]

Currently I have put some lettuce bottom in water and it seems to grow new leaves.. I grow almost all my herbs this way too. My rosemary is doing very well and so are my peppermints and celery.

 

[maddie]

These tin cans look fabulous like this..

 

[mandikl0721]

Our food scraps generally go into the compost bin, but I may have to try some of these things, especially the pineapple plant and celery.
Do you just stick it in water until it starts to grow or what? More info please!!!

 

[ChanellG]

I have been experimenting with onion bottoms. I have managed to grow them to a certain point, but they've died off before I could separate and replant them. Growing your own food is definitely a learning process. I'm happy to say that so far my compost is going well.

 

[Marie]

I have been experimenting with onion bottoms. I have managed to grow them to a certain point, but they've died off before I could separate and replant them.

Have you heard of Welsh Onions? They're a perennial onion in the sense that you plant one, and by next season, they have grown into a bunch, you simply pull them up, and replant one for next year, which will bunch up again.
I had them in my garden when I moved here, and another gardening forum told me what they were. I was amazed! I don't know an awful lot about them, but they're not actually Welsh, and the leaves can also be used as herbs (They're like mild chives).

This might be easier than trying to recycle onion roots?

 

[ChanellG]

Have you heard of Welsh Onions? They're a perennial onion in the sense that you plant one, and by next season, they have grown into a bunch, you simply pull them up, and replant one for next year, which will bunch up again.
I had them in my garden when I moved here, and another gardening forum told me what they were. I was amazed! I don't know an awful lot about them, but they're not actually Welsh, and the leaves can also be used as herbs (They're like mild chives).

This might be easier than trying to recycle onion roots?

I have not heard of them, but I am certainly interested in learning more! A lot of gardening is experimenting. I have kept the onion bottoms in water and watched them, but I really didn't have the time, tools, etc., to do more than that. I may start another one and sit it in soil. My mom had a red onion that sprouted and she buried it even though I told she needed to separate it to get new onions.

It took a few tries for me to get anywhere with garlic and to understand how it grows. I guess it will be the same way with onion once I get back to it. For now I am more focused on carrots and spinach (from seed) though I have some beet tops I'm "regrowing" for the greens. So far so good with that, but the leaves are really small and barely enough to add to a really small salad.