Trying to cut back on your plastic use? Don’t overlook your garden! Have you ever wondered what happens to all the plastic waste we generate in our gardens? Using less garden plastic will help slow demand for single-use plastics, reduce waste, and also keep plastic chemicals from leaching into your soil. Over 350,000 pounds of horticultural plastic enters the waste stream each year in the United States alone.
Keep Plastic out of the Garden in the First Place
Recycling is not the solution to dealing with garden plastic. But how? Here are effective ways to use less in the future. Cut demand for horticultural plastics.
Make Your Own Fertilizer - Known as Compost.
Make your own fertilizer, known more commonly as compost. If you’re not already turning food scraps and garden waste into a nutrient-packed soil additive that plants love, you’re missing out. It’s a vital and necessary sustainability strategy for reducing waste, closing the nutrient cycle, and preventing air pollution that causes climate change. Remove plastic stickers from your fruits and vegetables before you compost. You can make simple homemade fertilizers from food scraps like banana peels, coffee grounds, and eggshells. If you have a fireplace, wood ash is also a great addition to garden soil. Leaf mold may be used as a soil conditioner, made from nothing more than composted tree leaves.
Make Your own Mulch
One easy way to cut down on plastic in the garden and save money is to skip bagged mulch and make use of the free materials growing in your yard all season. Not only do mulches look good and help reduce the number of weeds that pop up, but they also preserve soil moisture and add nutrients and organic matter to your beds over time. Use seaweed, pine needles, cut-down twigs, or chipped wood. Many municipalities also offer free wood chips by the truckload at community compost sites.
Pass on Plastic Nursery Pots
If you buy transplants from a garden center, odds are you’re bringing home plants in plastic pots. While some are recyclable or can be brought back to the nursery for reuse, most wind up in the trash.
- Get divisions from friends, neighbors, plant swaps, social networking groups, and Freecycle.org
- Start your own seeds at home with seed starter pots made from newspaper or toilet paper tubes, or repurpose a cardboard egg carton
- Buy bare-root plants
- Propagate flowers and shrubs from your existing plants
- Look for pots made from compostable materials like coir or paper
Pick Non-plastic Growing Containers
Are you a container gardener? When you’re buying new pots or planters, skip the plastic and go for terracotta, wood, ceramic, or metal. You can repurpose metal tubs or oak barrels you find at flea markets and thrift shops as well.
Choose Plastic-free Tools and Gear
When you have the choice, go for durable metal and wood tools. Plastic tools are more likely to break in the short term and need replacing. You can often find rakes, shovels, trowels, garden carts, and trimmers made without plastic. I found lots at garage sales for a few bucks or for free.
Look for Ash handles in tools featuring wood since Ash is one of the strongest and long-lasting woods available. When buying a tool featuring metal, avoid aluminum and opt for forged carbon, or stainless steel. Pick cotton garden gloves. When they wear out, they can be composted along with your food scraps.
Use Plastic-free Weed Barriers
While plastic sheeting suppresses weeds, it also keeps moisture from getting to your plants and can leach chemicals into your soil. Commonly-used “landscape fabric,” while more porous, is made out of woven plastic. Weed roots like to clinch through these tiny holes and it is almost impossible to get the weeds out. “Landscape fabric is one of the worst items a gardener can purchase!" Instead, use thick layers of newspapers or cardboard and cover them with mulch. It works well for garden pathways and is good for in-between perennial plantings, too.
Another plastic-free weed barrier that works well when covered with bark mulch is the repurposed burlap sacks from organic coffee roasters. These are usually made from jute or hemp and will biodegrade into your garden soil, adding nutrients along the way. Check-in with your local coffee company for more information.
Enjoy Non-plastic Composters
Plastic composters are widely available but many options exist for composting without plastic. You can build your own compost bin from up-cycled pallets or other scrap wood, or metal wires, or help speed the composting process with a metal compost tumbler.
Gardening with less plastic can take a little extra thought, but it isn’t difficult. Try some of these simple swaps and enjoy a plastic-free garden. You will have the double pleasure of a healthier garden and the knowledge that you have helped to slow the demand for unnecessary plastic.
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