Have a Better Garden: 5 Surprising Ways to Use Recycled ‘Garbage’

By Christina Sarich | Natural Society
Posted on May 20, 2015

Growing your own organic food is extremely gratifying, but adding recycling to the mix is like winning the lottery two days in a row. When you mix the self-sustaining practice of growing your own food with the environmentally supporting habit of recycling, you are helping the world two-fold, and you get some tasty offerings in the process.

Here are 5 ways to incorporate recycling into your gardening habit:

1. If you don’t use a clothesline – don’t throw away the lint from your dryer, either. Save the lint in an air-tight container and till it into your garden to help the soil retain moisture.
2. Recycle the fine print. After you read the newspaper, or junk mail printed on newspaper, shred it and put it in your compost bin.
3. Re–use fruit and vegetable kitchen scraps. Though you can just throw your kitchen scraps straight into the compost pile, you can also put them through a food processor, and use them around tomatoes, peppers, egg plants, pumpkins and more to feed growing plants. Peppers really love this trick, and you can expect bumper crops for feeding your plants so well.
4. Don’t throw the water away after you boil or steam vegetables. Once the water has cooled, use it to water your vegetables growing in containers. You’ll be happily surprised by how your growing vegetable plants respond to this recycled water.
5. To make azalea flowers bloom brighter, put leftover tea bags and coffee grounds around the roots of your plants. You can also just dig a hole near them and bury your used tea bags. It is up to you if you want to share your secret with the neighbor who ogles your incredible blooms.

Also be sure to check out this related article revealing 5 plants that you can grow from food scraps. Sometimes garbage just isn’t garbage.

Do you have more surprising organic gardening tips that involve recycling to share? Please share them below.

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About Christina Sarich:

Christina Sarich is a humanitarian and freelance writer helping you to Wake up Your Sleepy Little Head, and See the Big Picture. Her blog is Yoga for the New World. Her latest book is Pharma Sutra: Healing the Body And Mind Through the Art of Yoga.

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Tags: featured, grow your own food, recycling, self-sustaining