Making use of garden and kitchen wastes

We have a lot of garden waste from the average size garden and all of it can be put to good use rather than been tossed to the tip.

Waste comes from lawn clippings, leaves, weeds, pruning and tidying up plants.

All of these can be re-used back into your garden to benefit.

Lawn clippings likely are the biggest continual green material to dispose of.

Clippings can be mulched around existing trees and shrubs to suppress weeds, retain moisture and feed the existing plants.

Layered a few inches deep around but not close to the trunks, is a good way to dispose of lawn clippings to benefit.

Caution though; during wet times plants such as citrus that do not like wet feet, so avoid any mulching that will prevent excess water from evaporating. During dry summer time they are an advantage to retain moisture.

Even lawns that have been sprayed with chemical weed killers can be safely mulched in this manner around well established trees and shrubs. If there is any activity in the clippings still, they will help kill weeds in those areas.

Don’t put herbicide sprayed clippings into compost or around young plants, on vegetable and flower gardens.

If the grass is seeding when cut, then you can transfer grass weeds to the areas mentioned so be aware of this and don’t place where you don’t want grass weeds.

Another useful method of using some lawn clippings is to place them into a barrel or similar and fill with water. Leave for a time with an occasional stir and then you have some neat liquid plant food with a high nitrogen content.

This is a good way when there are grass seeds in the clippings, the seeds will float to the top and can be scooped off. Dilute with water at about 1:10 as this is a safe dilution ratio if spraying over plants, otherwise no dilution is needed if applying to soil as a side dressing..

Add some Mycorrcin or Thatch Busta to the container for an even better plant food and if there is any animal manure available this too can be added.

Some lawn clippings can go into the compost bin to advantage but not too much.

After every catcher of clippings is placed in the bin, scatter a handful of Wallys Calcium Hydroxide over it. This will quickly aid the break down and sweeten the compost.

After 3 to 5 catchers of clippings sprinkle a layer of soil over the material and water in some Mycorrcin or Thatch Busta to speed up the decomposing.

For those that are not familiar with Calcium Hydroxide here is an explanation:

Calcium hydroxide is an inorganic compound with the chemical formula Ca(OH) . It is a colourless crystal or white powder and is produced when quicklime is mixed with water.

Calcium hydroxide is perfect for pH adjustment with a high pH of approximately 12.5-12.8.

Fast acting it reduces acidity in composting making for better compost, used as a side dressing for vegetables when the ph of growing medium to acidic to feed plants.

Made into a slurry with water ideal to whitewash glasshouse in summer to help reduced temperature. Also use in preserving eggs.

A useful product for your gardening endeavours.

If you have a rotary lawn mower, then you have the ideal machine to shred clippings and weeds for mulching or adding to the compost bin.

Spread the material over a section of the lawn which is away from sight of your gardens and thus one which is not so important on how it looks, as spreading material over the lawn and picking it up with a rotary mower always makes a bit of a mess.

Don’t put the material on the lawn too thick, about 2-3 inches thick is about right, lift up the height adjustment of the mower and run it across the material with the catcher on.

Once most of the material has been shredded, then add more material to the area and repeat till all is done. You then can lower the mower height to get more of the bits left behind.

This is a great way to obtain really good mulch and compost material.

Leaves in autumn can be treated in the same way.

You don’t have a compost bin? Well if you use the rotary mower method and don’t have a compost bin then simply obtain some black plastic rubbish bags.

Put the clippings of green material into a bag till its about one third full. Then sprinkle a handful of Wallys Calcium Hydroxide onto it, a handful of soil and water in some Thatch Busta or Mycorrcin.

Then fill to two thirds and repeat with soil etc, then fill near to the top and tie off the bag. Punch lots of small holes in the bag, all over with a small nail or very small screw driver.

Place the full bags in a sunny spot and leave for some months. You will end up with some great material for the gardens.

For those with compost bins, besides using green waste from the garden you should also use all your kitchen scraps including egg shells. The shells place good calcium into the mix and should be crunched up to aid breakdown better.

Animal manure is important for a good balanced compost and if you don’t have a supply of kitty litter, dog droppings or chooks then obtain the likes of chook manure from a poultry farm, stable manure or similar.

The best compost is obtained by having a good mix of material (even your vacuum cleaner bag) some soil added along with Wallys Calcium Hydroxcide and Thatch Busta or Mycorrcin watered in.

Use the Mycorrcin at 100 mils per litre and the Thatch Busta at 50 to 100 mils per litre of water.

Either of these two products aids the micro organisms to break down the green waste faster.

Turning the compost to aerate also speeds up the process and improves the end result.

If you have the type of plastic compost bin that sits on the soil, simply lift the bin off the heap, that has been sitting for a while and set up along side the heap.

Then with a garden fork lift fork-full’s of material and drop into the bin. This process can be repeated as often as you like but once a month will be fine for many.

(If done every week you will have compost ready to use much sooner) When moving the material ensure that it has not dried out. If it has, then sprinkle with water to moisten.)

Too dry or too wet, the composting action stops.

When doing major trimming of trees and shrubs the branches that are too big, to use a rotary mower on them, so a shredder/chipper is needed for this.

Hire one, or if you have the use for a unit then buy one. Larger branches should be cut up for firewood and if you don’t have a fire place then give them to someone that does.

Another tip, if you are using any weed killer sprays, add 5mls of Thatch Busta or Mycorrcin to each litre of weed spray made up. It will break down the drying weeds much faster and also assist the weed killer to work better.

Products mentioned are from Wallys Range of products and can be found in some garden shops or by Mail Order on www.0800466464.co.nz

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