Cathy Isom has a list of some things you should be saving right now for your Spring garden. That’s coming up on This Land of Ours.
Even though it’s still cold outside and gardening is probably the last thing on your mind. It shouldn’t be. In fact, there are some things you need to be saving right now to prepare for the spring garden. And, these materials all come from common household items that might otherwise be considered trash or destined for the recycling bin.
For example, used coffee grounds. Save them in a separate bucket to add texture and fertility (nitrogen) to the garden soil. Sprinkled around the base of plants, coffee grounds will also repel common garden pests like slugs and ants.
Wood ash from the fireplace has lots of minerals and nutrients in it, so it can replenish a lot of those micro-nutrients we hope our crops will have. Those make plants healthier and add flavor to our fruits and vegetables.
Make sure to save your banana peels. Dry them out, grind them and then put them in the soil where they will add vitamins and minerals.
Saving all of those cardboard boxes from holiday deliveries will come in handy for lasagna beds, which is an easy, no-dig method for making fertile, low-maintenance gardens. Cardboard tubes too, from toilet paper, paper towels, wrapping paper and oatmeal. These tubes make great biodegradable/compostable seedling pots.
Instead of tossing out the wine bottles into the recycle bin, hang on to them for use later as efficient watering systems, garden borders, or stacked to make a pretty garden fence.
I’m Cathy Isom…