Reuse or Recycle in the Home Garden

If you aren't composting, this is a great way to bring nutrients back to your garden soil without fertilizer. Simply recycle scraps from fresh fruits and vegetables by placing them in a bin in your kitchen. When the bin is full, take the scraps to your garden where they will decompose and replenish the nutrients of the soil. Limbs and leaves can also be composted. Anything that comes from nature and remains in it's natural form, can be returned to nature. Do not add grease or meat to compost.

How to Compost

Many gardeners I know poke holes in plastic buckets or recycled milk jugs. This allows the water to trickle out at a slow pace near a freshly planted tree or garden plant. It avoids water waste and water run off created when the water is running too fast, as from a hose. Because the water is running slowly, it has time to soak in deeply into the soil near the plant and get to the roots where the water is needed. In addition to poking holes in buckets or a recycled milk jug, you can recycle plastic bottles by adding a watering spike as seen here.

Watering Spikes for Recycling Plastic Bottles in the Garden

In addition to recycling plastic bottles and jugs for watering slowly, try to recycle your waste water for the garden. Water collected in rain barrels, or water from the bath or laundry can be used in the garden.

So many gardeners buy seeds and I've never understood why you would buy something that is free. Not only are garden seeds freely available from your garden harvest, you can encourage the traits that you want in your garden vegetables, by harvesting and reusing your seeds to plant next years crop. Not only that, but saving seeds allows you to preserve and sustain heirloom and organic seeds. Learn more how to do this:

How to Save Fruit and Vegetable Seeds

Spring brings on dreams of next years garden and it is time to bring those dreams to life by starting seeds indoors. Starting seeds allows you to get a jump start on some vegetables, by growing them indoors before the chance of frost has passed. Not all garden seeds can be started indoors, but many of them can, such as tomatoes, peppers, strawberries, cucumbers, lettuce, celery, and cabbage.

How and When to Start Seeds Indoors
How to Recycle Toilet Paper Rolls for Starting Seeds

If you are currently using a garden hose to water your garden, you may want to search your inner environmentalist to find some less wasteful ideas. Down spouts on your home can be used to collect rain water for the garden. Also gray water from your home laundry and shower can be routed to the garden. I personally use water from my children's swimming pool each year to water the garden. If you don't have a pumping system set up, a water pump can be purchased fairly inexpensively online and it will allow you to recycle water for use in your garden year after year. Recycling conserves and reduces water consumption and waste, saving the plant and saving you money.

The idea of a cloche (French for bell) is that you can extend the growing season by warming the earth. This is done by covering the plant with a plastic covering to warm the earth similar to a greenhouse. The sunlight comes in, but the cold air stays out. This can also be used to cover plants if a late freeze sneaks in after the last expected frost in your area. You can recycle plastic, scrap lumber, a plastic jug, or bottle to use as a cloche.

Mulch is used to keep moisture in the ground and discourage the growth of weeds around your plants. Almost anything that is heavy enough to stay put and is biodegradable works well as mulch. Recycle hay, grass clippings, wood chips, or leaves as mulch in the garden.