Something rotting at the bottom of the garden…..

365/66 California Compost (Photo credit: mjmonty)

Take waste disposal into your own hands by taking up composting.

Composting accelerates the natural process of biodegrading or rotting down organic waste material into a rich soil or compost. ( What is biodegrading? read this quick resume.)

It sounds complex, and indeed many tracts you read on composting treat it as some kind of arcane science, but basically you put all your scraps into a compost bin keep it warm and well balanced and it rots down naturally into a rich soil or compost.

Simples.

With the right bins you can turn all your biodegradable waste into plant food, or, if you dont need plant food, just dispose of your waste ecologically.

The Compost Post Index

We love composting for so many reasons. You can read about them in detail here, but they include:
Cutting our carbon footprint by loads by diverting biodegradable waste from landfill.
Cutting our dependance on waste collection services by taking responsibility for our own waste.
Cutting our bin liners.

From a plastic free perspective, composting means I don’t need to use bin liners to wrap my mushy waste. All mushy waste goes straight in the compost bin. Read living without bin liners for more information.

There are many ways to compost.

You can build or buy an open bin – this didn’t work for me.. rats invaded my bin and refused to leave. Other people manage though. So I use an enclosed system called the Green Johanna to compost everything. Yes its plastic but you can compost meat and there’s NO RATS.

You could try an underground composting system if you just want to get rid of organic waste rather than make compost. Or this – the green cone that just eats your waste.

This nifty little electric composting unit that you can keep indoors in a kitchen cupboard

Animal waste bins can bu used to compost your pet poop .

Some people rave about worm bins but I wasn’t impressed – post to follow.

Well there should be something there to suit everybody so c’mon people LETS COMPOST.

New to the subject – read up on all things composting here including compostable plastics.

Want to cut down on your plastic rubbish? – you can find other plastic free products with the >>>A-Z

Kitchen cupboard sized compost bin

I am lucky enough to have a garden where I can keep  my compost bin. However if you don’t have the space, you could try one of these and compost in your kitchen.How it works?

Automatic Compost Bin.

Two chamber design: So clean and easy, you can even compost indoors. Add food at any time into the  upper  chamber. Heat, mixing, and oxygen help the natural  cultures  break down the food within days – before odors  develop. Push a button to transfer  to the  tray below. It will continue to compost there for another week, while you fill  the upper chamber again. Remove the tray at your conveinence

Why compost – well it means no more plastic bin liners, along with numerous other benefits.

Do you want to live a plastic-free life? Browse our uber list of plastic-free products HERE

and find out how to do things plastic- free HERE

Bunny Boiler

(Photo credit: Wikipedia)

So many glues, so many man-made polymers.

Plastic? In glue? Oh don’t get me started! Yes lots of it, and not just the packaging. Find out more about plastic   HERE

So imagine my joy when watching Kev build his hut in the woods, he actually used a  glue made from urine soaked rabbit skins.

Kevin McCloud is a British designer, writer and television presenter. he’s the one that does Grand Designs…. and now he is putting up  a uber shed in a bosky glade.

I always thought he was a bit slick, but life in woods is having its toll.

He is becoming more moleskin trousers by the minute!

Here’s a bit more about last week’s episode – that of the rabbit glue. Not quite sure what they are implying….

Sadly there isn’t a fact sheet for this particular product, but if you want to make your own – here’s a recipe from t’internet.

Not tried it myself being rather short on bunnies. However for other urban types, and yes living in Huddersfield does make me an urbanite, you can buy it ready-made from DIY Tools.

And here’s the write-up:

“Liberon Rabbit Skin Glue is traditional glue which is mainly used in gesso and size preparations for gilding purposes.

Performance
- Natural animal skin glue.
- Traditional pearl used for making Gesso and for gilding.

How to use
Dissolve in warm water mixing 1 part glue to 4 parts water. Heat this solution in a double pot until all the glue has melted. If the glue is too thick add some more water to the solution. Do not allow to boil.

Precautions
The glue may be reheated two or three times. Old or dirty glue must be discarded and a fresh solution made.”

I haven’t tried it myself having no immediate sticking need, but next time I do some gessoing (?), this will be my first port of call.

Of course it comes in plastic packet, and may well contain some plastic polymers, but it is an interesting concept worth investigating.

So there you have it … She wasn’t a psycho your honour, she was just making glue!

Find out about the boycott and us here

Find plastic free products in the >>>A-Z<<< plastic free index.

Related articles

• Bunny rabbit loves balloon to death – video (theweek.co.uk)

Snippetty snips

Today I have been  hacking my way through unruly undergrowth. The bad weather has meant people have not been out in their gardens and the rain and  the lack of intervention has resulted in unchecked plant growth and so….

..this is a job for Snipper Girl.

My cutters of choice

 Joseph Bently – steel and wood tools with minimal packaging.

 

Yes there are some irritating bits of plastic – they are attached to the cardboard/ plastic covered board with all plastic ties but that is as reduced as you can get.

And they are lovely tools.

I got mine at TK Max but numerous internet and garden shops sell them.

You can find more plastic free garden stuff  here

Want to reduce the rest of your plastic rubbish? Check out these plastic free products   >>>The A-Z plastic free index<<<  

The Green Johanna – composts everything

I started composting with a simple black bin, the economy discounted version from the council. I chucked the food in and it biodegraded down into brown sticky stuff.  For 14 months all was well – then the rats arrived. Now I had been extremely careful what I put in it. No cooked food or dairy was to be found in there but seems the rats liked salad.

I stopped putting food waste in but the rats stayed.

It was like a kind of rat hive in there.

And they still ate everything I gave them, even the leylandii hedge clippings. Now while I admire anything that can eat and apparently enjoy Leylandii I cant stand rats.

So I went out and  got myself a Green Johanna   compost bin. It is considered to be the rolls Royce of compost bins, and  is priced appropriately. However it claimed to be rat proof and able to compost everything including cooked food waste and bones.

Wincing slightly I parted with the cash and it duly arrived flat packed ready for us to erect.

The full kit Includes:
1 x Mixing stick
4 x Outer rings
1 x Lid
1 x Base
2 x Doors
1 x Bag of fixing screws
1 x Instruction manual

It was easy to install and looked just like an ordinary compost bin. Except it had a floor. It came with  complex sounding  instructions which we ignored, and a stirring stick we rarely used. Despite this it worked fine.

Two years later I can confirm that it can dispose of a chicken carcasses, lamb shanks a dead rat and PLA plastic pots. The live rats have left – moved on to find more accessible bins no doubt.

Plastic we use….

This compost bin is made of plastic and I am fine with that because I think that plastic is the best man for the job. It is waterproof, rot proof, light weight, and best of all, RAT PROOF.

Even at its slightly eye watering price it is still affordable.

More importantly it keeps a lot of biodegradable rubbish out of landfill which reduces our carbon foot print.  See  pressing reasons to get your own bin for more on this

We will also get some compost for the garden so reducing our reliance on manufactured fertilizers.

Its worth it.

More information can be found at

Living without  bin liners

Something Rotten – a compendium of composting posts – being revised

PLA Composting – oh yes it does – being revised

Want to reduce your plastic rubbish? Check out these plastic free products sourced as part of our boycott  >>>The A-Z plastic free index<<<  

Related articles

• First Compostable Toothbrush! (praxisbioarquitectura.wordpress.com)

all the little birdies…

feeding the birds can be a plasticky business but not for us happy Huddersfield folk. Up at Earnshaws saw mill, a place better known for their damn fine timber products, they sell a whole range of bird seeds loose – everything from nigra seed to peanuts. If you don’t know your linseed from your sunflower they  have a chart telling you what seed will attract which bird.

After that its really easy.

Take your own plastic free bags (and I find biobags are the best for bird seed), fill em up and take them home.

happy birdies all round.

Image via Wikipedia

Related articles

• Making Bird Seed Cakes from Scratch for Your Pet Bird (brighthub.com)

Want to cut down on more of your plastic rubbish? – you can find other plastic free products with the A-Z plastic free index

You dont need bin liners

We used to use hundreds but now I have given them up! So what do I keep my rubbish in then? I could use compostable bin liners made out of cornstarch or paper bags but why pay when you don’t have to? And we dont!

We boycott plastic, recycle, and compost – all of which means our kitchen bin is nearly empty. What rubbish we do create is mostly dry, at worst a bit sticky, so it can go straight into our kitchen bin.

The bin has one of those hard removable plastic liners that can be washed out after emptying – which helps if waste is a bit grubby.

We empty our kitchen bin straight into our black bin. You could use a degradable plastic liner in the wheelie bin if you really wanted to – or had to.  We don’t need to as, most of our rubbish is dry, and our council is sensible.

End result – we DONT NEED TO USE ANY KIND OF  BIN LINERS.

Originally we had a bin with a steel liner but it began to rust and was  hard to keep clean. So I changed to plastic. See we don’t hate it  (you can follow our plastic we use tag to see the plastic we indulge in).

Dont know which compost bin to buy, only got a tiny apartment, or have no  need for humus? Dont worry, you can still compost – try this range of interesting compost bins

New to the subject – read up on all things composting here  including compostable plastics.

Want to cut down on your plastic rubbish? – you can find other plastic free products with the >>>A-Z

Parsley Sage Rosemary and Compostable Pots

All this plastic for one pot of herbs??? Its way too much rubbish.

So I’ve taken to growing my own.     Lucky for me there is this completely plastic free, grow your own herbs kit. Well except for the seed sachet – I suspect that they may be plastic lined.

It comes with

·3 different coloured pots made from natural, sustainable bamboo fibres bonded with rice ‘resins’. These pots can be reused and will last 2 – 3 years before biodegrading in your compost heap.

·3 matching saucers to stand the pots in.

·Peat free compact compost disc – just add water and watch them swell to fill the pot with peat free soil.

·Quality seeds in a range of flavours.

All the above is packed in a sturdy cardboard box with no plastic in sight.

You can choose from

Mediterranean Herbs contains sweet basil, coriander and chive seeds and blue, green and yellow biodegradable pots.

Traditional Herbs contains Parsley, Rosemary and Thyme seeds and blue, green and yellow biodegradable pots.

You can buy them from some garden centers and online here

 

Find lots more plastic free recipes with the plastic free cook book 

Want to cut down on more of your plastic rubbish? – you can find other plastic free products with the A-Z plastic free index

Watering Cans for young and old (and rich)

Take a look at this beauty – my  galvanised watering can with removable brass rose. Looks good and lasts forever. Comes with absolutely no plastic bits and no packaging at all. It holds 9 litres – 2 gallons which is big enough to matter but light enough to carry when filled with water.

The brass rose can be unscrewed and this is a very important feature. Put the rose on and water can be sprinkled over seedlings or delicate plants a necessary but slow process. Take the rose off and water can be poured in a stream which is great for soaking plants at the roots. A removable rose means it can be cleaned when bits of soil and residue block the holes. Without this feature your can will eventually clog up.

Finally the rose can be replaced when knackered. Interchangeable roses can also be bought resulting in ever finer sprays.

Haws Cans

Haws also do a metal watering. It is the Rolls Royce of metal watering cans with a price tag to match. These too have interchangeable roses

Kiddies Cans £5.25  

Made by Garden Angels these cans are as classy as you would expect from these guys. They are metal watering can with enamelled finish and will last much longer than plastic counterparts. They don’t have removable roses but in all fairness they are more for fun then real work. They come in pink or blue – I don’t know why. Plastic and packaging free they

Sadly they have plastic handles and come wrapped in a plastic bag.

All the above can be bought on line or from local hard wear shops and some B&Q stores. If you have trouble finding them try here.

Want to cut down on more of your plastic rubbish? – you can find other plastic free products with the A-Z plastic free index

Plant Labels

Busy digging over the garden and planting up next years crop in the allotment and I find myself:

• Turning over a new seed bed to find ugly plastic markers polluting the soil:
• Uncovering plastic plant markers relating to some kind of plant but all the text has disappeared:
• Hoeing away and cut through another perennial;
• Plant up some lettuces in lovely rustic pot which I don’t want to sully with nasty looking plastic plant markers
• Planting up rows of seedlings and not wanting to use plastic markers because of – well -all of the above:

So I have bought some wooden monster-size, lolly-pop stick. NB The normal size lolly pop sticks are too small. I tried them but couldn’t read them.  Actually I couldn’t even see them and so another peony died.

These big boys come in at 150mm length x 19mm width x 1.8mm giving me plenty of room to write on and if I use a permanent writer, the writing lasts a long the marker.

I can also use pencil which doesnt last as long but is plastic free.

If they get dug into the soil no problem they will biodegrade and feed next years spuds.

They look much nicer in my pots and allotment.

Where to get them?

You can buy these from craft stores on-line but they often come in little plastic bags. To ensure I got these plastic free I had to buy in bulk so they came in a box rather than a bag. I searched for medical spatulas.

You can find more plastic free garden stuff  here

Want to reduce the rest of your plastic rubbish? Check out these plastic free products   >>>The A-Z plastic free index<<<