Use Your Garden To Recycle Just About Everything
(Page 3 of 5)
March/April 1973
By Jack Roland Coggins
A milk carton, cut to form a drawer, makes a handy cabinet for filing seed packs according to their appropriate needs.
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AUTOMATIC WATERING DEVICES
Those bigger tin cans that do such a good job of sheltering your plants in the spring will also help you water themlater on when the hot, dry weather sets in. Remove both ends of the containers and sink them two-thirds deep into the ground near tomatoes, peppers, squash or whatever. The water you place in these excellent reservoirs will head directly for the plants' roots with no waste or erosion . . . and, best of all, you'll save hours of watering. Just fill the cans once a day and laugh at droughts and hot spells.
USEFUL GARDENING TRAYS
We live in an age of prepackaging which — as we all know — means tons of additional trash to dispose of. Before you toss that wrapping away, though, stop to think about who's paying for those millions of dollars' worth of valuable packaging materials that are used annually. You foot that bill, because — when you buy readypacked meat, vegetables, fruits and baked goods — the cost of the paper and plastic is added to the price of the food. Throw out the containers and coverings and you throw away your money.
It makes sense, then, to use those extras you purchase willy-nilly along with your food. For example, take the aluminum and plastic trays that often hold meats, vegetables and baked goods. Why throw them away when hundreds can be stacked and stored in a few square inches of shelf space to await a second career in dozens of gardening uses?
For instance, if you start seeds in peat pots or pellets, you can set the containers on the prepackaging trays to contain drainage and splashed water. Those unsolicited "gifts" from the supermarket also come in handy to protect table tops from potted plants . . . or, if you have a decorator's eye, you can paint the trays bright colors and use them as planter mats.
STORAGE CONTAINERS
One of my favorite forms of reusable food packaging is the paper milk carton, which has a thousand and one uses in gardening. Did you know, for instance, that these boxes can be convenient tools to help you in your soil improvement program?
You're already-I hope — giving your food residues to the plants instead of to the trash can or a costly mechanical disposer ("waster" would be a better name). If you are, you'll find that garbage-toting is neater and more pleasant if you store clean kitchen wastes temporarily in milk cartons. Later, when you have time, you can distribute the leavings in the garden rows and cover them with a thin layer of soil. This way you'll rapidly build an environment that favors soil microbes and tilth-building earthworms.
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