Have some plastic milk jugs, egg shells, coffee grounds, or broken pots laying around? Well don’t throw them away, use them this year in your garden. There are multiple ways you can help keep the old gardening tools from landing up in the landfill for Global Recycling Day. Here are just a few fun ways to reuse those old Items.
Don’t cry over spoiled milk, you can use it as a fertilizer, pesticide, fungicide, and a cleaner for gardening tools. Use a 50/50 ratio of milk to water for a solution, then just spray on plants or soil. But wait, don’t throw out the milk jugs, you can use those too! They are the perfect filler in your large pots. Save your old milk jugs, crunch them down to let out the air, and then just set them at the bottom of your larger pots. This helps take up room so your pot is not FILLED with dirt, preventing it from becoming too heavy to move. And this is also a great way to save soil and have extra drainage in your pots!
Looking for a small container to plant your vegetable or herb seeds in. Stop going to the store to buy little containers, just look in your fridge. Egg shells are perfect. Not only is the egg shell a little container but it also gives the new seedling nutrients. Egg shells are mostly made up of calcium, which is an important mineral for a plant’s health. Once the seedling is ready to be planted in a larger container or garden, you can slightly crush the shell and put it right into the plants next home. The shell will continue to break down and release the calcium.
Are you an avid coffee drinker and a plant lover? Keep your old grounds and use them as a slow release fertilizer! Coffee grounds not only contain nitrogen, potassium, and phosphorus but also a bunch of micronutrients. Grounds will also improve drainage, water retention and aeration of the soil. They have a ton of benefits to add to your garden, but you do need to be careful, not all plants love coffee grounds. Here is a small list of plants that do not like grounds: geraniums, asparagus fern, Chinese mustard and Italian ryegrass. Coffee grounds tend to add acidity to the ground, so sprinkle them in thinly to your soil if it deems fit for your growing conditions.
Broken pots are a common thing in a gardener’s life. A crack or chip or half a pot does not have to be the end of their life! You can use the pieces of the pot for labels in your garden or you can create a beautiful mosaic for a fairy garden OR just be a staple structure in your garden. This can be a unique way to spice up your garden.
There are infinite ways to upcycle in your garden. Other small ways are to use old pallets for planters, old tires as decoration, or to use rusty old colanders for planters! It is your garden, be creative and make it YOUR garden. Plus you are helping save the earth!
