Zero Waste Week - tell us your best upcycling and re-use tips

moneyistooshorttomention

GQ


I must remember that tip about baking then crushing eggshells to use as a soil improver.

I guess every little helps and my clay soil needs summat to improve it.

What other things do you do personally, besides the eggshells and the tea from used teabags to improve yours?

[Deleted User]

Ilona wrote: »

I re use my bath water for flushing the toilet. I also use it for washing the car,

and washing the kitchen floor. Always find another use for it, never let it go down the plug hole. Saves me money. :j
Ilona

I have a walk -in shower on the ground floor of my house so the water takes a bit of time to come down from the tank upstairs.I have a empty 5 litre plastic paste bucket (left over from decorating) which I use when I have a shower so the cold water doesn't just go down the drain it goes on my garden instead After all I am on a meter and paying for the stuff;). by the way do you mean the screw type lids from plastic milk bottles for re-cycling at Lush's.If so, I can start to save them from my DDs house as with a large family they do go through quite a bit of milk, I only use about a 2litre bottle a week at most.This week as I have just returned from my holidays I am using up the long-life stuff in the cupboard before buying any fresh stuff. I suppose I have at most a small plastic bag full of rubbish per week if that I live fairly close to a shopping precinct where there are recycling bins so I can recyle paper stuff every few days, also empty tins.(I wash these out in my washing garden water) No point wasting water, my late OH worked in the Sudan and said until you see how water is treasured you would never waste it again.:(

GreyQueen

moneyistooshorttomention wrote: »

GQ


I must remember that tip about baking then crushing eggshells to use as a soil improver.

I guess every little helps and my clay soil needs summat to improve it.

What other things do you do personally, besides the eggshells and the tea from used teabags to improve yours?

I have put 9 tonnes of manure on it in the last few years (300 sq m) which was 5 tonnes of horse (free) and a load of 4 tonnes of mixed cow and pig (bought). I have probably also put a greater weight of spent barley grains from an organic brewery into the soil, but have had none for about 3 years now as that resource has dried up.

I also take the wheelbarrow to the common where the travellers graze their ponies and shovel up the deposits. This is an ongoing symbiotic relationship between us and them and has worked well for years. Unlike having a tipper trailer of manure delivered, it's free but for sweat equity. My allotment is in a suburb and I haven't transport to get well out into the sticks to places where you can get manure for free.

All household waste from my singleton household goes into one of those plastic compost Daleks up at the lottie. My allotment is heavily infested with seriously-bad stuff which would go through composting and remain viable, such as the horsetail, bindweeds, couch grass etc.

I pile these weeds up to dry out, alongisde things like the broad bean and runner bean stems, and the cut-off brambles which intrude onto my plot from the derelict ones nearby and then will burn them in the early autumn (lottie rules have a burn ban until 1st October).

The potash from the bonfire site is allowed to cool for a couple of days then forked through for a few things like stray nails and then forked under the soil. I had a big bonfire last October and the spuds which grew on the ground where the fire had been (I didn't spread the resulting ash evenly, just turned it under where it fell) were noticably much better than the ones nearby. I would calculate that the tops and the spuds were a good 20% bigger and they took longer to die off, thus having a longer season. This has made me very aware of the potential for potash as a soil improver and I will aim to gather up the cooled ash from this year's bonfire and store it, and put some in each potato planting hole next March.

Because of how the allotment is, where this year's bonfire will have to be will be where last year's was, and thus not the 2015 spud patch.

My soil is silt-over-sand, very free-draining but silty enough that the surface easily crusts and needs regular cultivation. It dries out incredibly quickly and then when you are working it on a dry day, fine dust sifts through your clothes, making your feet and lower legs very mucky.

There's as many ways of improving soil as there are gardeners, just depends on what resources you have available to use. Given the tonnage of stuff I have personally put on that plot, I'd expect the soil level to be noticably raised, but it isn't. Soil is dynamic, constantly moving and needs to be worked with as an ongoing project.

Oh, and I have also used soot on another allotment, but that's best composted/ weathered first, as it could burn plants. I am also toying with the idea of trench composting, by which is meant having an open trench and just added the household waste as it comes and filling as you go. Then planting straight into it. This works well for runner beans.

Oh, and pay attention to your crop rotations, to avoid depleting the soil of too many specific nutrients at once, and avoiding disease build ups. I make sure that I don't have heavy-feeding crops such as spuds or onions in the same place more than one year in three. With stuff that adds to the soil fertility like the legumes, you can be more flexible. The runner beans have been in the exact same spot on my Nan's garden for 40-odd years and there's never a problem there.

And you may be able to get your hands on spent mushroom compost which has the double bonus of getting some volunteer edible mushrooms as well as soil fertility. And you can ask coffee shops for spent beans and even compost hair. HTH.

moneyistooshorttomention

Very helpful GQ. Thanks.

I'm also toying with the idea of trench composting. Do let us know if you do decide to go ahead with it and how it goes.

Must remember to also use my coffee grounds and even hair combings then.

It's partly a question of getting into that mindset I guess.

Can I ask the reasoning behind baking the eggshells in the oven before smashing them up and using them? Does it make them more brittle, so they break more easily?

GreyQueen

Yes, the brittleness is the reason. It also sterilises them. I think I've read that you can give crushed, ground eggshells back to hens as a calcium feed (to promote good shell formation) but that you really need to sterilise and crush them first or they'll learn to peck their own eggshells.

I have a small baking tin on the floor of my gas oven and put the shells in there, they get cooked whenever the oven is on. You don't want to leave them in there too long for too many sessions or they'll end up a bit scorched and there can be a bit of an odour.

A few years back, I had a couple of friends round and one peered through the glass door and saw the pan of shells and joked that I was making shrunken heads, he'd never seen it done before. The other pal did this herself at her house, so she knew what I was doing.

When I'm doing my autumn work, I shall have to decide where the 2015 runner bean row is going and dig a trench and start composting. It'll take a fair bit of time as there is just me producing peelings etc. Check back with me in 12 months to see how the runner beans are doing.

ZeroWasteWeek

mrsd wrote: »

The upshot of this is they got rats which also came into our garden. The man from the council said the best way to deter them is to not have a compost bin and to get rid of the water butt, neither of which I really want to do. I read online that mint deters them and have planted a couple of plants. Any advice anyone could give on this would be very gratefully received as I dont really want to stop composting.

Here's an extract from a book I wrote on composting



[FONT=&quot]Rats[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot] [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]Many people worry about enticing rats to their compost heap. You will only get rats if they are already in the area; a compost heap does not cause rats to appear. A compost bin can be the perfect place for rats; it’s quiet (rats don’t like to be disturbed), warm and has a continual food supply.[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]One common reason for finding rats in your compost is the presence of cooked food. Have you, or another member of your household, been adding meat and fish, dairy, cooked food, bread or fatty foods to your heap? If so, you need to stop adding these foods and you’ll find that the rats will move to somewhere with a better menu. If the problem persists despite not adding these ingredients, experiment with omitting eggshells too.[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot] [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]Peace, quiet and warmth[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot] [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]Rats prefer peace and quiet and will run away from disturbances. Every time you walk past the compost heap, why not give it a tap or turn the contents? They’ll soon find somewhere quieter to live. They also prefer a dry environment, so make sure your heap is moist in the middle.[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]In addition, rats seek warmth and shelter. Turning the heap and maintaining a good C:N ratio will help to make conditions less favourable to rats. Rats don’t like open spaces; they tend to scurry along the sides of walls, hedges and fences. If rats persist you may have to move your compost bin to a more open site.[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot] [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot] Keep them out [/FONT] [FONT=&quot] [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]If the bottom of your compost bin is open, you may need to take preventative measures to stop rats entering. Empty the bin and line the base with wire mesh so that access to your heap is not so easy. You’ll need to use mesh with very small holes – 1 cm or less as rats can squeeze into tiny spaces. Bear in mind that rats can bite through very thin wire netting.[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]If all else fails you might have to try a different composting system: an enclosed tumbling one, or a Green Cone for example.[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot] [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]Solutions[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]Ensure no cooked food goes into your compost heap[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]Disturb the pile; rats like privacy[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]Keep the heap away from fences, walls and hedges[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]Use small wire mesh around the bottom of your bin[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]Try an enclosed composting system[/FONT]

Former_MSE_Andrea

ZeroWasteWeek wrote: »

Are they flat or deep? I'm wondering how you could get them clean enough too, so I'd be looking at using them for growing things with shallow roots in like cress? If they don't stink you could use them under houseplants as drip trays or would they work for DIY projects? As a paint tray or something? I know they need to be landfilled eventually, but at least you're getting more use from them.

Failing that - here's a zerowaste week challenge for you! Go to a local fishmonger with your own reusable containers and ask them to put your fish straight into them to avoid the packaging - go on, I dare you :eek:

Really sadly we have no local fishmonger! Are they a dying breed? Drip trays and cress sound like a great idea.

Katiehound

Sorry- in a rush, so not commenting on lots of the above... yet!

I can't post pictures of my duvets but if you go here- to page 29- you will see the pic and can read about them!:
http://medicaldetectiondogs.org.uk/sniff_sring_2013/the_sniff_spring_2013.html

A friend, who has an allergy always has to wear rubber gloves. For years the old gloves, when they finally split, have been destined to become... rubber bands. She chops the fingers and thumbs into about half inch widths. If the glove has a rolled edge that makes a very strong superior band. These are unflocked gloves (she wears cotton gloves inside)

ZeroWasteWeek

Katiehound wrote: »

if you go here- to page 29- you will see the pic and can read about them!:
http://medicaldetectiondogs.org.uk/sniff_sring_2013/the_sniff_spring_2013.html

Such a lovely story - I hope you feel proud of yourself. And I love the free rubber bands idea too! :T

mrsd

Many thanks for the info on rats and the compost heap. I dont put anything cooked (or raw meat) in it, but guess they have been attracted by the rubbish from next door. I will certainly try hosing the compost down and digging it over. It is between a shed and fence so fairly undisturbed, will have to make sure I create some commotion there.