Friday 28 December 2012

Re-using wine corks

Ever had corks left over after a bottle of wine and wondered what to do with them? Well our volunteers from Shropshire Master Composters have come up with some top tips to give your corks a corking new lease of life.

1. Corkboard: this is a fun activity to do with the kids on a rainy day.  Simply remove the glass from an old picture frame then glue corks to the backing and you have a corkboard. 
2. Trivet: Cork absorbs heat well and makes perfect trivets. You can style corks in any size or shape you need and then hot glue them together. You can then place hot serving dishes on the trivet.

3. Plant labels: If you’re sick of your garden tags blowing away or withering when rain falls, use a cork.  Just place a skewer in the end of the cork and it will help you mark your herbs and vegetables.

4. Place card holders: Corks make for a fun and inexpensive place cardholder. Simply cut them in half using a utility knife and then slice a small slit in them for the card. Another method you can use, is to cut a little off the bottom to make them stand upright and then cut the little slit in them for the card.


5. Floor saver: using a bread knife, slice the cork into round pads and simply glue them to the bottom of furniture so it won’t scratch your floors. A simple cost-effective and sustainable alternative to store bought felt pads.

6. Table décor: Use your favorite clear glass vase to collect corks, it makes for an interesting decorative piece and give you a place to keep them until you have enough to choose a project.

7. Barbecue: Use them as briquettes on the barbecue they burn well.


8. Plant drainage: Use them in the bottom of plant pots as an alternative to crockery / polysterene. The lightweight cork will help with plant drainage.

9. Composting: this is controversial for home composters because wine corks take absolutely ages to break down being naturally water proof they really do struggle to compost and take literally years to fully rot.  However they do go eventually as they are a natural product so technically they can go in the compost heap.

On a final note, make sure your cork is real cork! Synthetic plastic corks will not decompose like natural cork and will not work well for the options above either.

Thursday 27 December 2012

Re-using old tea bags


used tea bag

For all you greenies who feel bad throwing anything away without first re-using it, our volunteers at Shropshire Master Composters have come up with some top tips to help your re-use old tea bags.  
In the UK we get through mountains of these things ever year, literally tonnes and tonnes of them. Sadly most of them still end up going into landfill sites, but it doesn’t have to be that way.  Of course they make a perfect addition to a home compost heap but you can also re-use them first, for example: -
1. Skin care
Instead of expensive bath salts, run your bath water over several used tea bags for an aromatic and skin-rejuvenating soak. The antioxidants in green tea are particularly good for revitalizing skin.

2. Cleaning
Tea bags are slightly abrasive so really help for scrubbing congealed pots and pans, also the tannins in the tea help break down grease and fat.

3. Plant food
Break open a nutrient-rich tea bag and sprinkle liberally over plant. Acid loving plants appreciate this in particular.

4. Eye care
This method's an oldie but a goodie. Place cooled tea bags on your eyes, spa-style, for 10 minutes to relieve puffy, red eyes. Chamomile teabags  work particularly well for this.

5. Odour eatings
You can make a cheap natural air freshener with brewed tealeaves and a combination of your favourite essential oils.

6. Medicine
A used tea bag can help sooth the ache and reduce inflammation for insect bites, rashes and sunburn.

7. Polish
For sprucing up old floorboards soak half a dozen used tea bags in a bucket of water.  Then just mop your floors like normal.

8. Feet treat
Smelly feet can be enhanced with the antibacterial properties of soaking your feet in a basin of warm water topped with several used tea bags.

9. Flavouring
This may be an acquired taste but one of our volunteers recommended adding old herbal tea bags when cooking rice to add flavour and colour.

10. Compost
Of course home composting is the ultimate form of re-use. Through the magic of composting you can turn unwanted old tea bags into wonderful soil improver for the garden.  Despite some media reports about the material used to make tea bags they do still break down in a compost heap and they make a great addition to compost, adding vital nitrogen which boosts plant growth. So re-use them first and then get composting.

Wednesday 26 December 2012

Tetra Pak carton recycling

 
For many years Tetra Pak type cartons have been seen as impossible to recycle due to their complex layering system.  However the "myth" that they cannot be recycled needs to be broken, because they can and in fact there are dozens of places in Shropshire which recycle such containers and thousands of local residents are regularly recycling, literally tonnes of the stuff every year.


Its all thanks to the roll out of a national scheme, funded by the carton manufacturers themselves.  It means that you can now recycle all of your paper-based liquid food and drinks cartons, such as those made by Tetra Pak at various recycling sites around Shropshire,Telford and Wrekin.
Please remember: wash and squash your cartons before recycling.

Once collected, they are taken away to be baled, and transported by ship to a recycling mill in Sweden. They can then be recycled into a number of different products, ranging from plasterboard liner to high-strength paper bags, printing paper and envelopes. For more information on beverage carton recycling generally, visit www.tetrapakrecycling.co.uk.

You can recycle Tetra Pak at all of the main council recycling centres across the county.  The carton manufacturing industry have also paid for recycling skips to go in for Tetra Pak at the following sites in Shropshire: -


* Shifnal (Aston St Carpark)
* Bridgnorth (Barnsley Lane HRC)
* Birdgnorth (Smithfield Carpark)
* Ludlow (Leisure Centre)
* Craven Arms (Long Lane HRC)
* Cleobury Mortimer (Lacon Childe School)
* Church Stretton (Lutwyche Road car park)
* Bishops Castle (Crowgate Business Park)

* Whitchurch (Waymills HRC)
* Wem (High St Carpark)
* Oswestry (Somerfield Carpark, Oswald Rd)
* Oswestry (Maesbury Road Household Recycling Centre)
* St Martins (Stans Store, Overton Rd)
* Shrewsbury (Battlefield HRC)
* Shrewsbury (Frankwell Carpark)
* Shrewsbury (Asda, Old Potts way)
* Shrewsbury (Sainsburys, Meole)
* Shrewsbury (Co-op, Radbrook Green)
* Minsterely (Callow Parish Hall)
* Telford (Granville CRC)
* Telford (Halesfield CRC)
* Telford (Whitchurch Drive CRC, Ketley)

Monday 24 December 2012

Composting legislation - myth busting

For those sites that compost on a large scale such as the farmers who deal with the garden waste collected by Councils and anyone who deals with community composting you could be forgiven for thinking that the legislation can seem like a bit of a headache! You need to consider planning, Animal By-Product Regulations, waste carriers licence, and whether you need a T23, U10, or U11 exemption certificates to name but a few.  It all seems like too much for any sane person to manage and surely beyond the wit of a small not-for-profit group?  

Well not neccessarily, because there are groups in Shropshire and across the UK who run community composting sites and manage to navigate this maze.  It can be done and there is a good case economically and environmentally for having lots of small scale composters rather than trucking organic waste around the country to large centralised sites.   And there is a lot of support out there for this - there is a whole network of composters; The Community Composting Network (CCN) as well as experts at local charities like Garden Organic to guide you through the process.  Also you can contact the Waste Management Department at your local authority and most will be keen to encourage anything which reduces the amount of waste they have to deal with after all!  So dont be put off, the legislation just aims to keep everyone safe and its mostly applicable to animal health, aimed at avoiding another outbreak of foot and mouth etc, so tends to be more concerned with food waste, if you are just processing green waste that alone makes it alot more simple, so dont give up, it can be done.


The good news is that for home composting you dont need to even consider this at all, the legislation is simple. But if you are a community group such as an allotment, a church yard, a parish council or anyone who wants to involve the local community in managing their own garden waste then drop Jane an email jgriffiths@gardenorganic.org.uk who is a leading national expert on community composting and can point you in the right direction.  

Can I compost Christmas nuts ?


Those nice folk at Hotbin composting have provided this interesting peice of festive composting information.  Hotbin composting make high quality thermally insulated compost bins which can be used to compost all types of food waste - including nuts.

So remember you don’t exactly need a sledgehammer to compost a nut just a HOTBIN and some other easy to digest waste!

Nuts and fruit stones, cherries stones, kernels, peach, plum stones, and nuts are all compostable. Just remember nut and stones are designed by nature to resist bacterial breakdown – so it takes time. Hot composting using insulated units like the HOTBIN is quicker, and even if the stone is not fully broken down, the heat will kill the seed and prevent germination.

As some of you will know walnut trees are known to produce a chemical called Juglone that is toxic to many plants preventing their growth. Some composting sites suggest Juglone kills composting bacteria; but our research suggests this is incorrect – Juglone is a plant growth inhibitor (‘herbicide’) not a bacteria killer (‘fungicide’).

So all in all you dont need to worry about composting nuts and their shells, after Christmas you may well have a big pile of shells like this, just add them to your compost bin along with your grass clippings, newspapers, egg shells, tea bags and coffee grinds and they will rot down nicely adding some valuable carbon to your compost and helping to create a wonderful soil improver for your garden.

Sunday 23 December 2012

Christmas tree recycling

Did you know? In the UK we get through 8 million real Christmas trees every year! 

As such we estimate there are around 55,000 dead Christmas trees left over across the Shropshire, Telford & Wrekin area alone.  Please don't let them go to waste.  They make a great addition to your home compost heap but if you cannot manage them at home the local Councils can deal with them for you.


You can recycle real Christmas trees simply by putting them out for collection along with your garden waste or taking them to your local recycling centre.  All real Christmas trees collected will get sent for composting and turned into valuable soil improver for local farmers and horticulturalists to grow food with.
   
Top tips
  • Make sure you put the tree out on the correct day for your garden waste collection.
  • If you can please try to get the tree into your garden waste bin.
  • If you cannot, you may leave the tree next to your garden waste bin.
  • To help the crews please cut trees down to a maximum 5 foot (1.5m) lengths.
  • Please make sure you remove any tinsel and other decorations first

Thursday 20 December 2012

Christmas Cans ad

Saw this clever advert from the Isles of Geurnsey government aimed at encouraging metal recycling - made me smile so thought I would share it with you all.  Merry Xmas and dont forget to recycle all your cans, tins, aerosols and foil.


Wednesday 19 December 2012

Re-using citrus fruit

In the UK we throw away millions of tonnes of fruit and veg each year.  Despite our best efforts to promote home composting, most of this still goes to landfill. But it need not be this way.  Left over limes, lemons and oranges can have a new purpose and you’ll never end up with food wasted. Our volunteers from Shropshire Master Composters have come up with some ideas to keep citrus fruit out of the bin.
 
1. Cleaning: Juice leftover lemons to help clean all manner of household items. The recipe we have found useful is “2 tablespoon of lemon juice, 4 tablespoons of vinegar and 2 cups of water” then you can do more re-use by getting an old plastic spray bottle.


2. Laundry: Also you can use the same "recipe" as above on your clothing to get rid of stubborn stains. As always, test a small less visible area first so you don’t accidentally ruin your favorite article of clothing!

3.  Insect repellant: Apparently (I find this hard to believe) but if you have a problem this summer keeping ants out of your house simply place orange peels in the affected area. The acid smell will repel the ants and they’ll no longer be a problem.
 
4. Lighten your hair: if you want to go lighter this summer without going to the salon or using harsh hair dye kits, try natural lemon juice on your hair then just head out into the sunshine.

5. Shoe polish: clean an old pair of shoes with either a little lemon juice on a soft rag or you can rub a half a lemon on the shoe. Again, test on a spot that is not very visible first.

6. Medicine: save the rind from a grapefruit and follow this recipe to make a great tea that will help stop your sniffling this winter. Add lemon and honey for flavor if desired.

7. Keep olives fresh: adding a drop of lemon juice to a container of olives not only adds flavour but will keep them fresher longer.

8. Slug traps: You can use grapefruit halves to catch slugs - they love to spend the daytime in the warm dome of an empty grapefruit. Place them cut side down about the garden and then swoop in early evening and collect them up.

9. Compost! Despite some urban myths, you can add citrus peel to your compost heap at home and it composts really well.  Its best not to add too much to wormeries as the acidity may harm the worms, but for a standard home composting system, all citrus fruit is OK to go in.

Monday 17 December 2012

Festive Facts about recycling

Some seasonal recycling statistics from those nice folk at Recycle Now
  • The amount of wrapping paper estimated to be thrown away in the UK at Christmas could stretch around the equator nine times!
  • In the UK appproximately 2,550 tonnes of Christmas trees that could have been recycled are simply thown out with the general rubbish each year - please dont bin them - put them out with your (green) garden waste for composting instead.
  • Every year the UK throws out an estimated 4,500 tonnnes of tin foil over the Christmas period. This is enough to cover around 1500 square miles -roughly the size of Suffolk! You can put clean tin foil in with your cans for recycling in Shropshire.


  • An estimated 500 tonnes of Christmas tree lights are discarded in the UK over thhe Christmas period.  Dont bin them, bring them to your nearest recycling centre they can go in with the electrical items for recycling.  

  • 13,350 tonness of glass is thrown out in the UK during the festive seaason – from champagne annd sherry bottles to mincemeat and cranberry sauce jars. Recycling all of them could save 44,200 tonnes oof CO2 equivalent being produced, which is equivalent to taking around 13,000 cars off the road for one year or to not taking around 630 arround the worrld flights.
Tis the season to recycle!

Christmas recycling collections


The countdown to Christmas has started, and across Shropshire a huge effort is going into encouraging us all to keep the party going by remembering to keep recycling over the festive period.  Its been a vintage year for recycling in Shropshire and its great that we are recycling more at home than ever before and for three quarters of us recycling is now a way of life.
And the great news is, the recycling rate for Shropshire has increased again to around 53% of all domestic waste now being recycled.



Over Christmas and New Year is a time for entertaining and we all know that with all those extra guests we'll be having a few cheeky drinks so there is going to be more glass bottles and cans to recycle in particular.  The good news is the Council are now doing their bit too by helping us all to recycle our extra plastic not just bottles, but plastic pots, tubs and trays.  So as well as paper, cans, tins, aerosols, tin foil, glass bottles and jars they now pick up plastic bottles, pots, tubs and trays, so this Christmas all those plastic trays from biscuits, chocolates and mince pies can go for recycling now, helping to reduce what ends up in the bin.

Remember that despite the rescheduled dates all the recycling collections keep going over the festive season including the garden waste service.  So assuming we're not completely snowed under all that Christmas recycling can be put out in your boxes and will be picked up by the crews and taken to the recycling centre.  So although we will all be busy over this period, lets keep a good thing going and keep recycling.

Find out about when your re-scheduled recycling pick ups are due by visiting www.shropshire.gov.uk/binday

Friday 14 December 2012

Shrewsbury sinks food waste

An exciting new national study has been launched in Shropshire as part of the Local Government Association’s Waste Innovation Programme. The project will investigate the impact of Food Waste Disposers (FWD), which are being fitted in all the homes in the new David Wilson Homes development, Riverside Meadows, which is on the site of the old Shrewsbury Town FC football stadium in Shrewsbury.

Philippa Roberts, Managing Director of Low and Behold, who are managing the project explained:

“Waste water treatment works use Anaerobic Digestion to process their sewage. This is the same technology that is used to process food waste; producing renewable energy in the process. By allowing the householders at Riverside Meadows to put their food waste down their sinks, we are hoping to see a cost saving for the Council.”

She explained “Much of the project monitoring and evaluation will be involve the sewer network and waste water treatment works so the impacts on the sewer network and any cost implications of this are a critical element of the pilot project.

Councillor Peter Fleming, the Chair of the LGA, who funded this project said:

“Local government has long been recognised as the most efficient part of the public sector. But at a time of immense budget pressure – and with the prospect of further severe funding cuts at the next spending review – councils face their greatest challenge yet to reshape services in a way that meets the needs of local residents while operating within the new financial realities. This is why exploring innovative solutions to waste management is crucial. By exploring new ways of dealing with waste we open the door to vast potential savings for Councils.”

The Waste Innovation Programme will trial the use of Food Waste Disposers supplied by Insinkerator UK which are electrically powered units which are plumbed into kitchen sinks.  These are widely used across the USA but less so in the UK to date.  The units grind food waste into tiny particles (less than 4mm) which can then simply wash down the sink.  This will enable the residents to send their food waste for anaerobic digestion without the need for it to be collected.  As well as making it clean, quick and easy for the residents to minimise what ends up in their bins, this project will also help to produce renewable energy, reduce waste to landfill whilst also opening up potentially huge savings for local Councils. 

Across the UK local authorities spend billions of pounds of taxpayers money collecting and disposing of waste each year and with around one-fifth of all this waste being food waste it makes sense to look at all available options for addressing this issue.  In particular in flats where waste storage and collection is problematic and where some people wont have access to a garden for home composting, this type of unit may be an effective way to manage food waste in a sustainable, cost-effective and simple manner.

Thursday 13 December 2012

Christmas Composting tips

Home composting – top tips for Christmas

Home Composting is easy to do all year round; here are some great tips to help you keep a good thing going over the Christmas period. You’ll be surprised how many Christmas items can be composted.

 

*        Make your compost mixture more a-peel-ing! At Christmas we always eat much more and produce more food waste than at any other time of the year. Your compost bin will really appreciate the peelings from your tasty winter vegetables and festive fruits such as Satsuma’s and Clementine’s
*        Warm up your worms! Wood ash from open fires can be put into your compost bin; Let it cool right down first though, you don’t want to cook the worms and other little critters working hard to produce your compost.
*        Give your mix a Christmas present! Plain wrapping paper (non metallic/plastic) and gift tags can be scrunched up and added to the mix, but if you do, make sure you add it gradually and mix with your fruit and veg peelings to get the right balance. Cardboard packaging from Christmas toys and gifts will add fibre and structure to your bin, as well as paper napkins, Christmas crackers, inners and party hats!
*        Wish your Compost bin a Happy New Year! The remnants of your New Years Eve party will also be a welcome addition to your compost bin. Nut shells, wooden cocktail sticks, paper plates and some party food packaging. Natural corks from wine can also be added but will take longer to break down.
*        Twelfth Night! When the festivities have drawn to a close for another year, if there is any room left in your compost bin you can add those natural home made decorations, the holly and the ivy, mistletoe, paper chains and other natural / compostable decorations.

Save Money and reduce food waste this Christmas

Did you know that the average grocery bill for Christmas is £169!  For every household in Shropshire, Telford and Wrekin thats £34 million pounds! 

So what’s the secret to saving money this year? Love Food Hate Waste has some thoughts…

1. It pays to plan

• Christmas is probably the one time of year when even the most ‘last minute’ of us will sit down, ponder over who is coming to stay and make some sort of plan. Planning your meals in advance will save you time, and ensure you always have something to feed the hungry hordes.

• Take a look in your cupboards, fridge and freezer and make note of what foods you already have, this will help you to avoid doubling up when hitting the shops.

Use the Love Food Hate Waste on-line portion planner whether you're cooking for family or a party - see www.lovefoodhatewaste.com for further information.


2. Know your dates

As well as keeping up with all the social dates in your diary, don’t forget to keep an eye on the dates in your fridge too. Use up foods with the shortest dates first, and when shopping check to see if fresh foods can be frozen in case you don’t get round to eating them over the festivities.

• Best before dates are for quality, so you can eat these foods after this date, they just may no longer be at their best – eggs are the exception which should be eaten by the use by date, but can be eaten up to 2 days after if cooked thoroughly.

• Use by dates are for safety, you can eat or freeze foods right up to the day before the use by date.






3. Lovely leftovers

• Leftovers of bubble and squeak and cold turkey sandwiches are a Boxing Day tradition.

• This year spice things up with a Christmas curry; try our turkey and chickpea coconut curry and use up those leftover veggies with our mixed vegetable curry.

• Transform your Christmas panettone into a lovely bread and butter pudding and your leftover Christmas pudding into a luxurious ice cream.

4. Perfect portions

Catering for family and friends, not to mention the unexpected guests, often leaves us unsure of how much to cook. Our Christmas dinner portion calculator and party portions calculator, remove the guess work by suggesting how much to cook.

5. Savvy storage

Simple tips on storing our foods over the festive period can help us make the most of them, and make them last into the New Year.

• Ensure your vegetables are at their best for the main meal by keeping them in the fridge; most vegetables will stay fresher for longer stored in the fridge in the pack or bag they came in.

• Most of our Christmas leftovers will keep for up to two days well wrapped in the fridge, or pop them in the freezer to have on a chilly January evening.

Just think what you could do with an extra £50 in your pocket this Christmas. The average family in Shropshire throws away £50 worth of food every single month - so visit www.lovefoodhatewaste.com

Xmas 2012 - recycling tips

The festive season results in an estimated 3 million tonnes of waste across the UK.  Here's out top tips so you can turn Christmas into a recycling opportunity, and reduce the amount of waste your household produces during this period: -

1.  Make sure you recycle all your Christmas wrapping paper - Each year the UK uses 80 square kilometers of wrapping paper at Christmas!  Most types of wrapping paper can be included with your paper recycling collection.  The only type they dont accept at the paper mill is the plasticy types.  A top tip to check if paper is recyclable is to try the "tear test" - if you cannot tear it it is probably laminated/plasticised and cannot be recycled.

2. Save money by wasting less food this Christmas - In the UK just over the month of December we'll buy some 10 million turkeys, take home around 370 million mince pies and 25 million Christmas puddings during the festive period.  On average most people will end up binning about one quarter of this.  Visit www.lovefoodhatewaste.com for ideas on how to avoid food waste and save yourself some money on your Christmas shopping bill.

3. Recycle your Christmas cards -  Salopians will receive around 10 million greetings cards this Christmas.  A great idea to reduce waste is to cut up Christmas cards into gift tags for next year and remember you can recycle any cards which can't be reused with your paper recycling collection service.

4. Get real and recycle your Chistmas tree - After Christmas you can put real/natural trees out for collection in – or next to – your garden waste collection bin.  They will be collected by the garden waste collection service and sent for composting.   
5. Get composting -  Think of all the peelings from your Christmas roast potatoes and sprouts, all the extra satsumas you will peel, the tea bags from all those extra cuppas served to guests they can all go on the compost heap instead of ending up in the bin.  Its really simple to compost at home, visit www.shropshire.getcomposting.com for special offers on home composting products.
6. Add a battery charger to your Christmas stocking fillers - You can recycle batteries at the local supermarkets and at the Household Recycling Centres however its far better to avoid this in the first place by using rechargable batteries.  
7. Have your fairy lights lost their sparkle? Well don’t bin them, recycle them! There are 25 sites in Shropshire where you can recycle small electrical items - something which is often thrown out after Christmas.  We can recycle anything electrical, if its got a battery or a plug you can recycle it. 
8. Metal Matters - its especially important to recycle metal because it saves so much energy.  Recycling a single aluminium saves enough energy to run your TV for three hours.  But remember its not just cans - you can recycle the tin foil from around your Turkey and the metal foil mince pie cases and aluminium foil from chocolate, the large sweet tins often given as Christmas gifts along with your aerosols, clean food tins and aluminium packaging.  Visit www.metalmatters.org.uk for more information.
9. Plastic fantastic - Don’t forget this Christmas you can recycle all your plastic pots, tubs and trays from your food packaging.  Simply wash and squash and put them in with your plastic bottles for collection.
10. Cardboard packaging can be recycled - we have established 25 dedicated cardboard recycling sites around the county.  Visit www.recycleforshropshire.com to find your nearest site.
So make a new years resolution you can really stick to this year - recycle more and waste less!

Saturday 8 December 2012

Changes to waste collection dates

We all know when Santa is coming, but do you know when your bin man is coming this Christmas?

You might know what day your bins and boxes are 'normally' collected but don’t forget, all residents in Shropshire will have their waste collection day affected by the Christmas bank holidays, so please double check your calendar!

Staff from Veolia are out distributing reminder leaflets to every home in Shropshire this week, so look out for your leaflet or visit www.shropshire.gov.uk/binday to confirm your revised collection dates.

Changes to your waste collection this Christmas


Staff from the Veolia - the waste collection contractor for Shropshire Council are out delivering leaflets to all properties in Shropshire this week.  The leaflets are left under the wheelie bin lids by the refuse collection crews.  The leaflet is to remind us all about forthcoming changes to the day on which your refuse, garden waste and recycling will be collected due to the Christmas and New Year Bank Holidays. 

Everyones day will change over this period.  So dont forget to check your calendar or visit
www.shropshire.gov.uk/binday to see your revised collection dates.

Friday 7 December 2012

Shropshire Chilli farm

The magnificent garden at Wollerton near Market Drayton in North Shropshire was created in only ten years by Lesley and John Jenkins.  This tranquil three-acre plantsman's garden was laid out around the 16th century black and white hall (not open to the public).


Clipped yews, beech hedges and pleached limes form the backbone of the garden. These are used to create a series of 'outdoor rooms' which have been compared favourably with the famous garden at Hidcote.  They are truly beautiful. 

At Wollerton, however, the planting has been more experimental and the gardens combine formal design with intense cultivation of perennials, roses and clematis.  The borders feature old favourites including artemisias, valerian, campanulas, alchemilla and old roses.  Clematis winds through the purple, pink and dark blue border and the sensational hot-garden is a blaze of red, copper, orange and yellow set off by silver and grey.  The gable end of the house forms a geometric backdrop to the central lime walk, under-planted with purple sage.

An interesting bit of diversification for this site is that they have now become we think the largest grower of chillies in the whole of Shropshire.  So if you are inspired to have a nice day out and get some formal planting ideas as well as expert advice about growing chillies, the check out: -

Wollerton Old Hall Garden
Tel: 01630 685760
or visit the Wollerton Old Hall Garden Website

Thursday 6 December 2012

Composting conifers






We sometimes get asked about composting conifers.  Are they ok to compost?  Well of course its OK to compost coniferous trees and shrubs. They rot down nicely to form good compost despite its acidic reputation.

Small amounts of conifer needles and shreddings can be included in the general compost mix. However, evergreens of any kind are slower to rot down than soft deciduous leaves and general border snippings, so they should be well mixed in.

One option if you are having whole trees or hedges removed professionally by a tree surgeon is to ask them to shred the lot on site for you once they have finish. In this way you take alot of the hassle out of it and you can make some really good compost with the shreddings. 

 




Are tea-bags OK to compost?

Several members of the public have contacted Which? Gardening magazine to say that they've noticed that the teabags they put on their compost heaps are not breaking down properly, leaving a fine mesh behind. So Which? Gardening decided to investigate. They contacted many of the top tea companies including Typhoo, Tetley, PG Tips, Clipper and Twinings to find out what their teabags were made of. 

What are teabags made of?

Which? Gardening found that the vast majority of teabags contain a tiny trace of  plastic called polypropylene. It's not biodegradable - hence the fine mesh that members have been finding. The plastic is included in order to help heat-seal the teabags during their manufacture.

PG Tips said 'Like most of the teabags in the UK, our teabags are made with about 80% paper fibre, which is fully compostable along with the tea leaves contained in the bag. The remaining packaging contains a small amount of plastic which is not fully biodegradable.' Teadirect told us: 'Our teabags are 70% compostable.' These responses were echoed by the other companies. Whitney Kakos, sustainability manager at Teadirect, confirmed: 'Use of polypropylene is an industry-wide practice.'  The example in this photos shows how other non-compostable materials may also creep in such as the staple in this tea bag, clearly a metal staple will not compost - but is it a major problem?

So should teabags be composted?

The answer is still a big YES. The manufacturers maintain that their teabags can be composted, despite their plastic content.   In actual fact the plastic makes up so little of the overall amount of material that it is not going to cause a problem in your garden.

Lynne Gunn, WRAP's home composting expert, said: 'Our advice remains that teabags are suitable for composting. If the bags are still visible when you want to use the compost, they can be sieved out or picked off the surface of the soil. You can also speed up the composting process by ripping open the bags.'

Harriet Kopinska, home composting project co-ordinator at Garden Organic, said: 'We would still tell people to put teabags in their compost, as composting is the better environmental option. But where possible tear the bags first.'

Are any teabags plastic free?

Which? Gardening has found one brand of teabag that is polypropylene free: Jacksons of Piccadilly. Also, bags that are stitched, with a tag, are biodegradable (some have a staple - but there is no real need to remove this before composting unless you are very fussy about the quality of your finished compost).

Are tea companies doing anything about this?

It would appear that the full recyclability of teabags is not high on many companies' agendas - even most Fairtrade or organic teabags (with the exception of Jacksons of Piccadilly) contain polypropylene. Teadirect's Whitney Kakos said: 'Most consumers don't notice [the polypropylene] and probably don't care.'

Composting pond weed


We know that you can add most things from the garden but what about pond weed and algae?  If you have a garden pond then you know that sometimes you do have to clear it a bit to let light in and remove algae from the pond with a rake.  This material should not go to waste it can make great compost.

We recommend when you take this material out you leave it in a pile by the side of the pond for a few hours first, this allows any water loving critters than may be still present to hop back into the pond first.  Then simply add it to your compost heap along with your grass cuttings, prunings, tea bags, kitchen peelings, cardboard and shredded paper and it will rot down to form compost.

Ultimately its just decomposed plants and so it will break down to form good compost which contains beneficial bacteria, nutrients, potassium, nitrogen and phosphorus.   If anything we think it may be even better for your compost because it will have added nutrients from all that fish waste!



 

Composting fire ashes

What can you do with all the ash from burning wood in your fireplace or wood stove? 

 

Dont throw it away!  Wood ash is a resource not a waste - it can be a useful addition to your home compost heap or you can use it directly in the garden.

As far back as the ancient Roman scholars we have documented evidence of the value of returning ash to the land.  In the 18th century, the benefits of ash-derived potash, or potassium carbonate, became business - millions of trees were felled in the USA, burned and the ash was exported to Britain for use on our farms as "potash fever" hit. 

For the farm or the garden, wood ash can be a valuable source of lime, potassium and trace elements.  Since wood ash is derived from plant material, it contains most of the essential nutrients the soil must supply for plant growth.  When wood burns, nitrogen and sulfur are lost as gases, and calcium, potassium, magnesium and trace element compounds remain. The carbonates and oxides remaining after wood burning are valuable liming agents, raising pH, thereby helping to neutralize acidic soils.

If soils are acid and low in potassium, wood ash is extremely beneficial to most garden plants so you can add wood ash to your flower beds, lawns and shrubs.  The areas where you should not use wood ash would be if you have ericaceous acid-loving plants such as blueberries, rhododendrons and azaleas.

The fertiliser value of wood ash depends on the type of wood you burn.  As a general rule, hardwoods such as oak yield more ash and that ash also contains more nutrients than ash from softwoods.

When home composting, wood ash can be used to help maintain a neutral condition, the best environment to help microorganisms break down organic materials. Sprinkle ash on each layer of compost as the pile is built up. Ash also adds nutrients to compost. 

Remember this is only ash from wood burners and bonfires you can do this with - never use ash derived from burning rubbish or coal as you may end up with harmful chemicals on your garden which is not good for anyone. 

Lower Reule Bio-energy plant site visit

Some of the volunteers from Shropshire Master Composters recently took a visit to see a company on the Shropshire / Staffordshire border in Gnossal who are transforming food waste from supermarkets and local homes into green energy and compost through the use of anaerobic digestion technology.

The farming family initially got into this as a way of treating pig slurry but it soon became apparent that there is more calorific value and more money to be made in treating food waste. 

They got into a good working relationship with the local Newcastle-under-Lyme Borough Council who set up a system to collect food waste separately, plus they invested in de-packaging equipment to allow them to deal with the plastic wrapped  food waste that comes from supermarkets and food manufacturers.  The depackaging facility is located off site near Wolverhampton which allows literally lorry loads of waste food from supermarkets to be delivered into the site and mechanically shredded to separate the food from the soiled plastic which has to be disposed of by incineration. 

The "clean" food waste is then trucked into the farm and loaded into the AD plant which is further topped up with around 1,000 tonnes of pig slurry and 1,250 tonnes of maize silage each year from the farm on which it is based so that in total they can process 30,000 tonnes and having recently won a new contract to treat food waste collected from homes in Cheshire they are looking to expand the site.

The biogas generated is burnt through a Combined Heat and Power Plant (CHP), which produces equal amounts of heat and power. Approximately 1.3MW per year of power will be supplied to the National Grid.

The nutrient rich biofertiliser, which is an end result of the AD process, will be produced to the national specification - BSI PAS110 and used as a fertiliser on grassland and arable land at Lower Reule Farm and on neighbouring farms.

It was very impressive to see how such a sophisticated piece of technology can be used to help improve the environment and manage waste.  A big thank you to the farm for letting us look around.