PLASTIC IN AN ECO GARDEN?!

Yes!

Big Coca Cola bottles and similar ilk with the bottoms removed make fine mini cloches, at the same time keeping predators at bay.

Milk cartons with the top cut off are great to fill with seed and take out into the garden to fill the bird feeders. You can actually make feeders from them but the squirrels here just tear them apart.

We have eight feeders at the moment plus the compost heap - robins like to forage on the latter amongst the kitchen scraps. We do not use the council garden waste green bin as we recycle everything in that field ourselves. The green bin is used as a water container by the veg. beds.

Two of the hanging feeders contain black sunflower seed, as does the one attached to the kitchen window. Five have peanuts. We buy our seed and nuts in bulk from a local farmer’s supply warehouse. I did try the mixed seed but the birds picked the ones they liked best and threw the rest on the ground. As a consequence there grew some unusual plants!

At this moment the peanut feeder outside my window has two juvenile great tits, one young cock chaffinch, a cock greenfinch and a coal tit on it - and it is raining.

Sheet plastic, if black, can be used to clear an area of weeds - black bin liners held down with stones will do but heavier duty stuff is better.

We also use a sheet of pond liner (we have no liners in our ponds)(so they do leak a bit) as a water slide down the banking for the children, both young and old. (We are not wasting water, as we do not have a shortage (borehole)).

I have used old fishing net found on a beach to aid a climber go up a tree but it is a bit too gaudy.

I have avoided plastic edging to paths using old branches off trees, old scaffolding planks and such instead. I had to be careful with the branches, (and wasn’t enough), because we lost a mature ash tree to the dreaded honey fungus. We then chopped the wood up for logs for the wood burning stove and left them in a heap near the manure heap - ERROR! The logs sprouted toadstools and the bootlaces of the mycelium spread into the heap. We had to burn the logs in a bonfire and even now I find traces of black cords in the manure - these are carefully removed and placed on the bonfire. The manure is never used anywhere near shrubs and trees but seems to be ok with the veg.

I wander from the subject - Plastic.

One of the most useless pieces of plastic I have come across was as a blade on a small hover mower in the days before this garden when the lawn was the size of a pocket hankie. They lasted no time at all. I have tried to make replicas from old cans but they are not very good. Any way that mower has been retired - but, as with many things - put in a shed. You never know when it might be of use?

Finally, I do wonder as to whether there is a connection between plastics and a disease such as cancer but plastic is ubiquitous. At least many plastics could be made biodegradable - couldn’t they?

The Senecio greyii, now called Brachyglottis, what a mouthful, are in full flower and spectacular.

They would look better if the sun was shining.