Compost Confidential

Plastic Pot Recycling-One Silver Lining in an Otherwise Dismal Effort

According to the EPA, of the nearly 27 million tons of plastic generated in the United States in 2003, only 3.9 of it was recycled—and very little of that was garden-related. Unfortunately, gardeners are in for a long wait before recycling horticultural plastic is widely accepted by processing facilities. Of the pots that can be recycled, most municipalities lack the resources to manually segregate those from the many more that can’t. Manufacturers, growers and nurseries have yet to seriously consider a uniform standard for recyclable containers, and with many variables and competitive interests to consider, finding an acceptable solution will be difficult.

Yet in the midst of this less than encouraging news, positive things are happening. In 2007 the Missouri Botanical Garden’s Plastic Pot Recycling program successfully recycled over 100,000 pounds of horticultural plastic originally destined for landfills. With the cooperation of seven local garden center drop-off sites, this year they take on their most ambitious endeavor with a goal of collecting and recycling a record 150,000 pounds of plastic.

The MOBOT recycling program was started in 1997, thanks to a plethora of pots piling up in Dr. Steve Cline’s garage, the program’s founder and Manager of the William T. Kemper Center for Home Gardening. Since then, the program has collected and prevented over 300 tons of horticultural waste from going into landfills. The Garden’s successful program in St. Louis is the most extensive public garden-recycling program in the United States. Last month they received the Award for Program Excellence from the American Public Gardens Association in recognition of their innovative and pioneering spirit.

Elsewhere, there is a concerted effort by a group in the nursery and landscape industry to consolidate horticultural container sizes in an attempt to simplify the recycling process. A group will go before the ANLA Senate next month to start the ball rolling on this campaign. Although I applaud their efforts, standard sizes will have little effect on the bigger problem. I believe the answer is to standardize the materials used to make the containers so they’re all recyclable, no matter what the size. It will no doubt take the cooperation from many sides. Our industry does great things to beautify the environment, but it needs to eliminate the impact left behind in doing so. Now is the time and the issue is on the table.
What do you think?
JL

Growing Interest in Growing Your Own

With the skyrocketing interest in growing food at home these days, I think if Fresh from the Garden (the show I did for three years on the DIY Network) were rolling out this year instead of 2003, it would be their top rated series of the year. High gas prices combined with a tighter economy and the desire to live a more environmentally responsible lifestyle are driving this surge in new home vegetable gardeners.

In addition, nurseries across the country are seeing a huge increase in the number of young, first-time gardeners. They’re looking to serve their young family fresh homegrown veggies that are not only delicious but also free of all the chemical pesticides so prevalent in store bought produce. But price is the biggest motivating factor in growing their own. Purchasing organic food is prohibitively expensive for many families today and the commercial cost of growing and bringing organically grown food to market isn’t coming down any time soon.

Yet if this back door approach is what hooks young parents and children on gardening and doing so organically, I’m all for that. We know that parents aren’t gardening nearly as much as our parents did. Consequently, our children and grandchildren aren’t being introduced to it either. The time is ripe for spreading the gospel of gardening and growing your own. Full classes and long waiting lists are common across the country these days for programs such as Portland’s nonprofit Growing Gardens that teaches gardeners of all ages how to build raised beds and grow food in any available space. You hear that DIY Network? Fresh from the Garden needs an updated series with a green theme.

Although the main driver today may be economic, the benefits of this explosion of interest in home gardening are many; parents are children getting outside—together, exposure to delicious and nutritious home-grown food, and I’m sure many new lifetime gardeners will blossom from this experience, just to name a few. When life throws you lemons, make lemon-aid…or at least plant the seeds.
JL

Grow Where You're Planted

The other day I was returning from my morning run and I happened to look up towards the chimney. Something bright caught my eye and what I saw was truly remarkable. Growing from a tiny crevice in the mortar between the bricks was a yellow daisy, fully in bloom as it reached for the sun. Amazingly, from a sheer vertical face, one little seed had made its way into a crack that had just enough essential elements to get this little guy off to the right start.

How it got there, I’ll never know but I suspect either a bird or the wind as the primary suspects. Either way, it was yet another reminder to me at how amazing…and really how simple gardening can be. Everything that seed needed to grow into a plant was already there. Sure, there’s plenty to know if you really want to be an expert but sometimes we over-complicate the issue too. Mother Nature does a fine job of providing everything that’s needed. Sometimes we get in the way more than we help. Over-watering comes to mind as an example of how we often love our plants and lawns to death.

Another example of a similar moment happened one day as I was taking pictures for one of my books. Ironically, I was looking for chimneys to photograph. But this time it wasn’t something growing from it. Instead, my eye was drawn to a plant nearby. What made the scene so unusual was that this was a mature tomato plant, bearing fruit and growing merely from a small crack in the driveway. Once again, a seed had found just enough of the right conditions to set roots and reach for the sky. The homeowners had thought so much of this plant’s unique achievement that they provided the mulch to protect its roots while giving plenty of room to allow it to continue growing. They even parked their brand new car on the street so as not to disturb this determined tomato that was growing in the same spot their new car would have been occupying.

My take from these observations was a reminder that we too should grow to the best of our ability wherever we’re planted. Even though the conditions may not seem ideal at the time, with the right attitude and determination, its amazing what can be accomplished and who knows what kind of inspiration we might be along the way.
JL

What?!? No Tomatoes???

Last week I stepped back in time a few hundred years. Gardening was quite different back then and the contrast became quite vivid during a recent trip to historic Williamsburg for a taping of GardenSMART. We featured gardens and gardening practices from the 1700’s. The modern conveniences we enjoy today were not an option in those earlier days, so they did things the “old fashioned” way. Thoroughly prepping the soil, adding compost and manure and proactively monitoring their garden was simply how it was. Natural fertilizers and organic pest control methods kept their gardens looking good, beneficial insect populations high and food crops pesticide-free. Today, with the time-starved demands of our hectic schedules, we’re lucky to even have a garden, let alone take the time to proactively cultivate, monitor and protect it organically.

But back then, having a garden wasn’t a given either. In fact it was a sign of status. The things we take for granted today, like turning on the spigot for instant access to water wasn’t in existence then. Instead, water had to be brought in from the closest source. Even if you were fortunate enough to have a well, pulling it up the shaft at 25 pounds per fill was an exhausting endeavor for anyone. In either case, getting water to the garden was time consuming and labor intensive. Without hired help to keep the gardens hydrated, many gardens were abandoned by mid summer.

Imagine life without tomatoes. Back then they were still a crop of suspect and rarely grown. If they were part of the garden, there may be only one or two plants since space was precious and reserved only for the most productive crops. Tomatoes were never eaten as we would enjoy them today but rather exclusively in sauces and only then on occasion. However, the tomatoes we enjoy today have evolved substantially in two centuries. I would imagine if they could have grown varieties such as Sweet 100, Beefsteak or Brandywine, perhaps their gardens would look a lot more like ours.

Something else they didn’t have back then were the arsenal of chemicals we use today without a second thought. Fertilizers back then were compost and manure and it was the primary ingredients needed to keep plants healthy and resistant to many pests and diseases. There’s something else they had a little more of back then; time—time to pay attention to the important things like staying in touch with how their garden was growing. Today we divide those same 24 daily hours a thousand different ways. It’s no wonder we reach for the “quick fix” without much thought as to the price being paid to long-term health of our garden and beyond.
JL