How to Get Rid of Garden Waste
Is garden waste eating away at your sanity? You pruned your heart away, weeded until you couldn’t take it anymore, and pulled out dead plants and bug ridden food. Now you have a heaping pile of green and nowhere to go with it. Just what exactly are you supposed to do with it all?
Options for Managing Garden Waste
Let’s throw out some different options before going in depth about each of them.
– Throwing garden waste in the trash is an option but a bit wasteful.
– Composting is an obvious choice but it does have some cons.
– You could utilize a green dump site.
– Utilizing your green pile for mulch is an option.
– Food waste can go to farm animals.
Throwing Away Garden Waste
This is likely the first thing that comes to most people’s minds. Bag it up and toss it in the trash. This is not my favorite option first and foremost because it is wasteful. We call it garden waste but really you could consider it garden gold. It has many potential uses rather than just tossing it out. We will talk about those here in just a moment.
The other reason I don’t like this option is because every municipality is different. Where I live now, I am allotted 100 pounds of trash a week. Your average 13 gallon kitchen trash bag can easily hit 30+ pounds. That is not a lot of space to work with. They do not provide a green bin pick up like many of you may be accustomed to either.
Composting
I think every gardener has composting goals. However, more goes into it besides throwing it in a pile out of the way. To start, diseased plants should never be placed in your compost pile. That disease can spread to the entire pile. This means you are putting that disease back in the garden once your compost is ready to be utilized. Therefore, you still have to figure out what to do with diseased plants.
Compositing rotten or bug-eaten produce also takes more effort. There are certain things that take longer to decompose. Citrus fruits, for example, take longer to break down and can cause soil to be too acidic. Things like onions may cause earthworms to leave your compost. Earthworms are essential to your composting process.
Another thing to be conscious about is weed seed. Imagine you spent several hours pulling weeds that had gone to seed. You then toss those in your compost bin. Those weeds will be back with a vengeance once your compost is used in your garden.
I don’t say these things to drive you away from composting. Composting truly is a great way to build up your own healthy soil. Just be sure if you choose to do so, that you really do your research. You need to understand the different facets of this option to be sure you don’t make more work for yourself.
Mulching
Did you know, you can use trimmings as mulch? As long as your plants are not diseased, you can throw garden waste on your soil. It is free mulch and the plant will break down providing nutrients to the soil. This is called chop and drop. When my soil was bare last year, I did this with the healthy suckers I pruned off my tomato plants.
To clarify, I only recommend doing this with foliage. You should always be picking out bad produce and removing it from your garden. This prevents unwanted pests.
Hungry Animals
Those of you who have homesteads with farm animals have built in garden waste disposal systems. Pigs, chickens, and the like are unbothered by the bugs and will be happy for a treat. Now this is not my area of expertise, so please research what your animals can have. However, this is a method utilized by gardeners with livestock.
Overall Thoughts
Everyone manages their garden waste differently. This is going to be based purely on your needs and what tools you have available to you. Do your best to maximize the potential that your garden pile provides you. It is very likely that you will employ a combination of these options. That is ok, do whatever works best for your scenario.
If you want more garden tips, go check out my previous blog on Trap Crops.
Author
liv@livlifeoutdoors.com
