Praise for - Trellis · gardeners.’ Ken Cox, author of Woodland Gardening, Garden Plants for Scotland, Fruit and Vegetables for Scotland ‘Author Fiona Thackeray’s passion and

Praise for Plastic-free Gardening

‘An excellent well-researched reference and the firstbook on how to reduce the use of plastics inhorticulture. The author offers practical solutions toone of today’s key environmental challenges forgardeners.’

Ken Cox, author of Woodland Gardening, Garden Plantsfor Scotland, Fruit and Vegetables for Scotland

‘Author Fiona Thackeray’s passion and talent forgardening shine through this comprehensive guide todealing with the problem of plastic in our gardens.’

Claire Wingfield, author of 52 Dates for Writers androokie gardener

‘Plastic use, recycling and avoidance, simplyexplained. A sensible and realistic guide to what youcan do with a planned, staged approach to minimisingthe use of plastic in the garden. I want to buy a copyfor all my gardening friends.’

Jan Cameron, author of The Garden Cure, publicationsummer 2020, Saraband

Copyrighted Material

First published in Great Britain in 2019 by:

Trellis Books

Unit 8, 28 Glasgow Road

PERTH, PH2 0NX

Copyright © Fiona Thackeray, 2019.

Fiona Thackeray asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of thiswork.

Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of thispublication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted,in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying,recording or otherwise, without permission in writing from the publisherand from the copyright owner.

A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

ISBN 978-1-9164919-0-8

Printed and bound in Great Britain by Bell & Bain Ltd.

Cover photography by Sharon Watters. Other photos: Sharon Watters andFiona Thackeray.


PLASTIC-FREE GARDENING

A GUIDE TO REDUCING THE PLASTIC IN YOURGARDENING LIFE

FIONA THACKERAY


ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Fiona Thackeray is the Head of Operations at Trellis, the ther-apeutic gardening charity for Scotland. She has worked intherapeutic gardening for 25 years, in the UK and overseas. In2019 she received the Dr Andrew Duncan Medal for distin-guished service to horticulture. She also writes novels andshort fiction, for which she has won awards.

Find out more at www.fionathackeray.wordpress.com

ABOUT TRELLIS

Trellis supports therapeutic gardening groups, promotesgardening for wellbeing and helps people set up and developprogrammes to share the powerful health benefits ofgardening in hospitals, care homes, schools, prisons, hospicesand community plots.

Find out more at www.trellisscotland.org.uk


CONTENTS

1. WHY BE A PLASTIC-FREE GARDENER? 12. PLANT POTS 253. TOOLS AND EQUIPMENT 674. CROP PROTECTION 1015. PLANT SUPPORTS 1216. GARDEN ORNAMENTS, FURNITURE AND

HARD LANDSCAPING130

7. COMPOST AND SOIL FOOD 1498. SOCIAL EVENTS, FEASTS & CELEBRATIONS 1609. CLOTHING 17210. WHAT TO DO WITH THE PLASTIC YOU HAVE? 18511. HABITS AND APPROACHES TO STAY PLASTIC-

FREE192

12. PLASTIC-FREE HEROES: A SELECTION 19613. CONCLUSION 200

Acknowledgments 203


1

W H Y B E A P L A S T I C - F R E EG A R D E N E R ?

When we think of plastic and the problems it causes, we don’toften think of gardening. We think of beaches and riverbankscovered in debris and detritus. We think, perhaps, of the messoutside fast-food shops, in supermarket car parks, on pave-ments and motorway embankments and caught in thebranches of trees in the park. I think of the wrapping thatcomes with me from the supermarket that I never intended tobring home, the little transparent box for a few pears, thesurprise wrapping inside a box of tea, and I think of theunwelcome sight of plastic cups laid out beside a water jugwhen I go to a meeting.

But gardening seems like the kind of virtuous activity thatmust surely be almost free of plastic. A pure and timelesspursuit, rustic and noble, tending a haven unpolluted by plas-tic. Horticulture (encompassing the industry, the science andhome gardening) has associations of craftsmanship and dura-bility – tools of steel with turned ash handles, greenhousesbuilt from glass and beech or aluminium, pots of terracotta

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and buckets made of zinc. That is how gardening seems tomany of us who love it – until that is, we take a closer look.

When you next go into a garden, your own or one you’revisiting, sweep your eyes over the materials there. Fromplanters to power tools and plant labels, the chances areyou’ll see plenty of plastic in evidence. Next time you visit thegarden centre, do a plastic audit: it’s everywhere. Pots, ofcourse, are the most obvious and prolific items, but there areplastic tools, plastic gloves, plastic fencing, cloches and otherplastic coverings for crop protection like tunnels and fleece,and don’t forget ground-cover membranes, plastic green-houses, ornaments and watering cans. Even the clothes wegardeners use often contain an awful lot of plastic.

Then there’s the stealth plastic: the stuff you don’t knowyou’re buying, or that you buy unwittingly – even unwill-ingly – as part and parcel of something else. You set out tobuy some rocket seeds and later when you open the packet,find it doesn’t tear with the crisp rip of paper, but bends andstretches in the strange, shape-shifting way that only plasticsdo. Only then do you understand that the inside of the seedpacket has been coated with a thin plastic layer. You pick upsome compost, or manure, gravel or bark mulch, and areobliged to take home bags – of non-recyclable film – wrappedaround your purchase. And when you buy plants, not onlydo you buy a plastic pot, but a little plastic name label too,and sometimes a plastic stake, just for good measure, only afew millimetres thick, but plastic, nevertheless, propping upyour plant. Even most books contain plastic, though not, youwill be glad to read, this one. These plastics, so abundant andvarious, are causing all sorts of havoc to our environmentwhich we’re only now beginning to understand better. It’s a

FIONA THACKERAY

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good time to stop and take stock; to develop a more consciousapproach to our use of plastics.

In these chapters, we’ll consider some of the effects of theplastic in our gardening lives, as well as some new technolo-gies and ideas that promise to help tackle the problem. We’lllook at the good things that gardeners and the horticulturetrade are already doing to reduce plastic waste and of coursethere will be lots of ideas about how we gardeners can reduceour reliance on plastic.

At times, the scale of the plastic waste problem can seemoverwhelming, too big for mere gardeners to tackle. But weshouldn’t underestimate the power that lies in lots of peoplemaking one small change. Look at the recent revolutions thathave come about through lots of individuals changing a tinypart of their routine. The plastic-bag tax, five pence on asingle-use bag, led to millions of us refusing a bag a couple oftimes a week. The result: six billion bags saved in six months,a momentous 85% reduction. Later, a combination of tirelesslycollected evidence and dedicated campaigning by ordinarypeople and more well-known folk stopped the use ofmicrobeads in cosmetic products in 2018. Similar efforts toencourage whole cities and states to cut the use of plasticbottles and straws are already bearing fruit.

The UK is a nation of garden lovers, with half of all adultsparticipating in some form of gardening, and we spendbillions on this pastime every year. The impact, if we all makea small change in how we use plastic in the garden, will bephenomenal. And all the signs suggest that is exactly what’sbeginning to happen.


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THE PROBLEM WITH PLASTIC

Of course, plastic is fantastic. It doesn’t leak, it contains andisolates substances that may otherwise be smelly or toxic orstain our clothes, our cars, our skin. It’s strong, lightweightand malleable, able to morph into all kinds of shapes, and it’swashable, we can clean it very easily. Finally, it has impres-sive durability, that most double-edged of plastic’s qualities.These many desirable properties go some way to explainingwhy we fell for plastic so hard and find ourselves surroundedby the stuff today.

In the 1967 film, The Graduate, Mr McGuire (played by WalterBrooke) says, rather enigmatically, to a young DustinHoffman at his ‘Homecoming’ party, “I want to say one wordto you, just one word. Plastics ... There’s a great future in plas-tics.” While there may be other threads to this scene, itcertainly expresses the feeling of the era that plastics were amodern wonder product offering huge potential. The yearafter the film’s release saw a huge boom for plastic manufac-turing for which many people credit McGuire’s line. Brookeonce told his nephew that he’d have invested in plasticshimself, if he’d known the remark might prefigure suchsuccess.

Earlier still, in It’s a Wonderful Life, Sam Wainwright offersJames Stewart’s George Bailey a bright future in plastics, “…It’s gonna make us all rich … the chance of a lifetime”. WhenGeorge prevaricates rather than grabbing a slice of the action,Sam suggests he’s a bit of a loser, saying, “Unless you’re stillmarried to that broken-down building and loan. It’s thebiggest thing since radio and I’m lettin’ you in on the groundfloor.” During WWII, Wainwright does indeed make a fortunemanufacturing plastic hoods for aeroplanes.

FIONA THACKERAY

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Plastics have been used for lots of incredible medical innova-tions like prosthetic limbs, colostomy bags, heart pumps andstents, syringes and the safe containment and disposal ofblades and needles. They have been used to improve hygiene,to create inspiring toys for children, safety-enhancing carparts, beautiful art and all manner of lightweight industrialparts. Plastics truly are an innovation that human beings canbe proud of. The problem lies, to a large degree, in their after-life, their permanence after we have no more use for them,and their abundance. We’ve become so addicted to theirconvenience that we’ve turned to them to solve our problemsin every area of life – and come to rely on them.

Plastics are a class of substances called polymers, whose long-chained molecular structures are created by fusing togethersubstances with short molecular chains, a process called poly-merisation. Although there are polymers in nature, e.g. cellu-lose, the chains of molecules in synthetic polymers are oftenfar longer. It is this molecular chain length that gives poly-mers the strength and flexibility we prize.

Plastics manufacturing relies heavily on our limited reservesof fossil fuels, both for raw materials and for the energyneeded to process them. And where fossil fuels are beingconsumed, it generally also implies certain amounts of pollu-tion as a by-product. In addition, some plastics leach chemi-cals – such as Bisphenol A (BPA) – as they degrade, which canhave harmful effects on wildlife and possibly human health.Worse, plastics marketed as biodegradable often have someaccelerant ingredient added to speed their breaking downprocess, and that typically means additional polluting emis-sions concentrated over a shorter time frame.

Researchers from the University of Hawaii found that the


5


most common plastics release the greenhouse gases methaneand ethylene as well as other chemicals harmful to the envi-ronment when sunlight exposure begins to degrade them.The amounts are described as ‘traces’ though they increasethe more a plastic degrades, and plastic waste, considered inaggregate, is still a significant enough source of these gases toaffect the climate. Plastic bags, as the world’s most producedand discarded synthetic polymer, are the biggest source ofsuch gas emissions from plastic. According to Friends of theEarth, producing these ‘degradable’ plastics with addedaccelerants does not help, on balance, with promotingsustainable plastic alternatives.

FROM GOOD INTENTIONS

The early plastics were developed in the 1800s, partly torelieve pressure on wildlife and the environment. Tradition-ally, buttons, handles, billiards balls and many other commonobjects were made from the shells of turtles and the horns ofvarious animal species. So, developing a man-made substitutefor these items would save the unnecessary exploitation ofelephants, turtles, deer and other species for their ivory, hornand tortoiseshell. Today, with terrible irony, discarded plastichas become one of the biggest threats to wildlife, causingillness, disability and death for many creatures, and creatingapparently intractable problems for our waterways and landhabitats.

FIONA THACKERAY

6


Plastic bags (particularly ‘bunny bags’, the ones whosehandles look like rabbit ears) are easily mistaken for jellyfish,favourite food of turtles whose vision is not terribly sharp.The result, for a turtle, of ingesting a plastic bag is a slowdeath by malnutrition and drowning. A study from theUniversities of Exeter and Plymouth, shared online by SeaShepherd in January 2019 studied 102 sea turtles in threeoceans and found every one of them had plastic in theirbodies. Plastic rings used to hold beer cans and bottlestogether in packs of six can also be a plague on wildlife,causing strangulation for birds or trapping body parts in suchan impossible position that the animals can’t forage and feedor defend themselves and escape from prey.

In the BBC documentary Drowning in Plastic, presented by LizBonin (1 Oct 2018), viewers witnessed the tragic spectacle offlesh-footed shearwater chicks on Lord Howe Island with somany fragments of plastic in their stomachs that they weretoo heavy to lift off into flight. Shearwaters consume moreplastic by weight than any other marine bird, and the chickshad 30–40 sharp, coin-sized pieces of plastic in their stom-achs, including pieces of caps from drinks cartons and pen


7


lids. This volume would be equivalent to a human eating tenkilograms of plastic. Apart from preventing them from forag-ing, these plastics, once lodged in the animals’ bodies, arethought to interfere with hormone production and function.

In 2014 on an isolated beach on the northern coastline of SaoPaulo State, Brazil, I found a loggerhead sea turtle beingpecked by vultures. Despite bringing the animal to a rescuecentre in a nearby town, it died later that night. The cause?Plastic ingestion.

More recently, on 19 November 2018, a sperm whale washedup in Southeast Sulawesi, Indonesia, with a stomach full ofplastic waste, nearly six kilograms of it, including 115 plasticcups. Turtles and other marine creatures falling victim toplastic – whether by ingestion or entrapment in fishing linesand nets – are now commonplace events: rescue organisationsthe world over deal with such cases routinely. The whale hitthe headlines perhaps because, being such a big animal, itmagnified the scale of the tragedy and so struck us moreprofoundly.

FIONA THACKERAY

8


In reefs of the Asia–Pacific region, corals too are sufferingfrom the plague of marine plastic, and some scientists thinkthat the litter may also be acting as a vector of disease.Assistant Professor Joleah Lamb of the University of Califor-nia, Irvine, has been studying the spread of a bacteria fromthe cholera family which she believes is being transmittedbetween corals in lethal doses by plastic waste. Plastic objectsmay create a wound on corals when they land, creating achannel for the microbes to enter and set about infecting thehost organism. Seagrass meadows may play a role in trappingand disinfecting some of the plastic waste, and research effortwill now focus on these crucial ecosystems.

Other unforeseen calamities arising from our plastic habitinclude the now famous microplastics. These are tiny frag-ments of plastic products that have begun to degrade butdon’t fully break down in the environment and insteadpersist as tiny particles that can be swallowed by animals atall levels of the food chain and so eventually, inevitably, couldmake it into human food. This is where, if it wasn’t a worryalready, the situation really begins to hit home for a lot ofpeople. Microplastics, including microfibres, have been foundin the Arctic, in walrus faeces and in plankton, several days’travel from Earth’s most northerly human habitations.Nobody, not even the scientists studying microplastics, knowswhat these tiny remnants might do to the digestive systemsand other vital bodily cycles of organisms of every size frommicroscopic plankton and fish to whales and humans.

Less well known and tinier still are nanoplastics, fragmentssmaller than a single algal cell. Scientists have begun to lookat these more, but they are not so easy to isolate from water orearth samples as microplastics which can be strained out withfilters. In theory, nanoplastics could absorb more pollutants


9


2

P L A N T P O T S

When you think of gardening and plastic, what are the firstthings that come to mind? With me, and with many garden-ers, it’s pots. Square or round, nine centimetre or five litre,terracotta coloured or (overwhelmingly) black, the littlecontainers we use to sprout our seedlings or carry our newplants home from the garden centre all have one thing incommon: they’re made from plastic. Even more concerning,they are apparently non-recyclable (or are they? More on thislater…) which compounds the sense of guilt and wasteful-ness. But, since it often seems we have little choice but to buymore plastic pots if we want to have plants for our plot, orcontainers for our bulbs, seeds and cuttings, many gardenersjust suck up the guilt or turn a blind eye. Apart from a ruefulshake of the head when tossing them into the general waste‘landfill’ bin later on, or a vague pledge to reuse them (yes,along with the many hundreds stashed in the shed) we trynot to think about our contribution to the plastic wasteproblem.

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Plastic plant pots are often made from different plastics tothose used in food packaging and this is given as one reasonwhy so many local authorities are reluctant to take them intokerbside recycling schemes. In some regions another reason isgiven: soil contamination. Even when pots are made of thesame, common plastics as found in food packaging, thereseems to be a problem with their black colour – a result of thecarbon-pigment they contain. Black plastic doesn’t reflectenough light, making it hard for the light-based sensor on thesorting equipment in recycling warehouses to read thesymbols indicating plastic type. It can be hard for the humaneye to read recycling symbols on black plastic, even on foodpackaging. Add to that the mix of different plastics that havebeen used in the past to make pots, and confusing or absentmarkings on some pots to indicate to consumers whether theycan be recycled, and it begins to be clear why they’re seen asmostly non-recyclable. Most new black plastic pots are madefrom recycled post-consumer and industrial waste materials –e.g. from car manufacturing. This extruded polypropylene isa good quality plastic that has high value for reprocessing.But the potential to continue the recycling loop aftergardeners have used them is frustrated by the confusion oversymbols, acceptability in domestic waste bins and theproblem with sensors at sorting facilities.

The statistics for the industry as a whole are sobering: oneestimate suggests there are 500 million pots ‘in circulation’ inthe UK each year (Which magazine, 2011) – presumably thismeans on garden centre or nursery shelves or being takenhome by customers at any one time. It doesn’t take account ofthe stacks from previous years many of us already havelurking in the back of the shed. Some pioneering gardencentre groups have been trying to change this situation by

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offering recycling schemes that collect customers’ used potsand make new membrane, sheeting or plant pots from them.But these have been relatively small-scale, local operationswith limited coordination. Schemes like this also rely onfinding a specialist plastics reprocessing company nearenough not to incur significant transport costs, and a willing-ness to dedicate staff time to receiving, sorting and packagingreturned pots. It also depends on customers rememberingand making the effort to return their pots; only a smallpercentage will manage this. On top of all these factors, themarket value of plastics changes, so what works as a recy-cling loop one year may not be viable the next as the mate-rials might not be worth enough to justify transport andprocessing costs.

A small garden centre sells around 40,000 potted plants peryear. They rely on wholesale nurseries to provide their stockand have to accept whatever pots it comes in. But there aregood reasons why the black plastic pot has become ubiqui-tous. They are economic, durable, light and cost-effective totransport, as well as being stackable and hygienic. They fittogether neatly in trays (mostly) and on shelves and protectplants very well in transit. They also promote root health byabsorbing warmth through their walls yet keeping light awayfrom photosensitive roots and letting excess water drain out,directing it down their gently sloping sides through the smallholes in the bottom.

Garden centres have no use for old trays and can’t returnthem to suppliers for fear of spreading pests and diseases. Potmanufacturers also tweak the size and shape of their designnow and then, leaving growers (domestic and industrial) withpots that won’t stack together. It’s a similar situation at super-markets and DIY chains who also sell plants. In view of all


27


this, tackling the plastic pot status quo looks like a mammothtask.

The National Trust vowed in 2018 to move to biodegradablepots at all its properties within four years. This and similarmoves by other larger national plant sellers signifies animportant change. The customer feedback antennae of theseorganisations have been twitching as visitors make their feel-ings about plastic known. The fact that large bodies withhundreds of outlets and properties that include thousands ofacres of gardens have made the pledge to move away fromplastic sets an example. This will undoubtedly send rippleeffects through the market and reflects a changing publicmood.

WHAT TO DO WITH YOUR POT STASH?

First, to address the little (or huge) stack of plastic pots youalready have. Those you no longer need, or which aredamaged can be taken to your local recycling site and addedto the plastics recycling bay. This way there is a better chancethey can be recycled than if they were put into kerbside bins.It’s not every council recycling facility that has a plastics recy-cling bay, however, as I discovered recently. Pots surplus torequirements at the Trellis Potting Shed must be put in theNon-Recyclable Waste skip as the council currently offers noway to recycle them. There is clearly work to be done to makelocal authority recycling programmes more comprehensiveand standardised. It’s worth asking your council if you canput plant pots into the kerbside plastics collecting bins andremember this may change over time. If you find your areadoesn’t offer pot recycling through any channels, perhapsyour local garden centre might operate a pot return/recycling

FIONA THACKERAY

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3

T O O L S A N D E Q U I P M E N T

Many gardeners have a special affection for old, time-servedthings; articles that are handed down and treasured fromanother age or found and reused. They particularly love glassand wood, things forged from iron or steel, preferring mate-rials not too far removed from their natural state over plastics.After all, working among natural things is what gardening isall about, right? A generalisation perhaps, but that was how Iliked to see things – that is until I took a long, steely lookinside my tool shed. Indeed, there were lots of things thatwere very, very old and had been inherited or bought second

67


hand, possibly third or fourth hand, and stood the test of timebecause they were solid and well made.

My turf cutter, for instance, has a beautiful angled neckleading to a long wooden shaft and a deep, D-shaped handlecarved with an unknown gardener’s initials. If you’reanything like me, there will be many other such ancient toolsin your shed, things of great beauty, the handles carved withthe initials of long ago owners, reminding you of your placein a line of gardeners whose hands and years of labourpolished the wood and burnished the metal. Sitting alongsideall the old and beautiful things, however, are plenty of thingsmade of plastic. They slip into the tool shed, into your shop-ping basket without you really noticing. You go out in searchof a lightweight trowel and it turns out that the only modelon offer that’s any lighter than the wood and metal ones isplastic. The same Hobson’s choice situation arises whenyou’re in the market for a lighter watering can. I reallyshouldn’t make excuses for the many plastic items in myshed; suffice to say the report card summary reads, ‘Could dobetter’.

FIONA THACKERAY

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Spades, Forks and Rakes

These tools are mostly made from wood (often ash) andmetal, perhaps carbon steel, although sometimes coated withEpoxy resin – that’s right, a plastic. When the basic model isadapted for comfort or convenience or to reduce its weight,that’s often when plastics are added. Some tools will havefoam trim added to the handle to make it soft and morecomfortable. There are spades with a circular handle designedto allow them to be gripped from different angles. The handleis made from plastic.

Chillington Tools is an interesting company to explore, selling‘traditional tools’ with a wide range. The handy thing is youcan buy handles and tool heads separately, so if you want toreplace the head of a favourite spade or rake, but keep thevery comfortable handle, they can help. They also sell extra-long wooden handles which are often a great investment asmany tools are sold with a too-short handle: a sure-fire way toend a day in the garden with a very sore back.

Finnish company Fiskars make a lightweight range of tools,called the ‘Light’ range in white or black painted aluminiumwith steel. They are very nice to use and don’t seem toinvolve much or any plastic in their construction. Some oftheir other tool ranges, however, do have plastic and fibre-glass in their handles.

Spear and Jackson also offer spades, forks and rakes withstainless steel heads on hardwood handles. But they sell toolswith plastic handles too, which seems to be true of many ofthe main tool suppliers. Online shopping does let you explorethe construction materials used in different tool ranges beforeyou buy. Nothing beats going to the garden centre though, to

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heft a spade in your hands and see first-hand what it’smade of.

One other idea is to investigate tool libraries in your area. Theoption of being able to borrow the tool you need from acentral collection organised by a group in your communitywould certainly help reduce the plastic you use. Not everytown has a tool library and you may need to use most toolsmore frequently than practicable for a communal borrowingprogramme, but it could be an interesting option for scythes,say, or lesser-used tools.

Small Hand Tools

In this category you are likely to find tools made wholly orpartially from plastic, especially when seeking lightweightmodels. There’s not really any reason to buy a dibber made ofplastic, when the turned-wood, metal or bamboo models areeasy to find, cheap, and possibly lighter. But for customerssearching for a light, cheap hand fork or trowel, often plasticmodels seem to fit the bill best. I have it on good authorityfrom a gardener with arthritis in her hands that with smallhand tools, excepting badly designed, very heavy tools, theweight is not so much of a consideration when balancedagainst cutting power and design. If a tool is well shaped,sharp and efficient, that often matters more than how light-weight it is. Indeed, plastic trowels and forks are often toorounded and blunt to be effective, which can cancel out anyadvantages claimed for their lightweight construction.


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acrylic, 135, 139, 179air-dry clay, 92Aldershaw, 93algae, 42, 84, 104, 137–138Al-Khalili, Jim, 17aluminium, 1, 20, 70, 76, 82, 90, 167, 178American Society Testing and Materials,

96Amsterdam, 14ARPRO, 156arthritis, 43, 71artificial turf, 130, 144–146Attenborough, Sir David, 16, 200

Baby Bio, 113bamboo, 33, 71, 85, 90, 123, 131, 133, 161,

163, 166, 176, 198Ban the Bead, 171, 197banana fibre, 46; leaves, 162bark chips, 103, 193; mulch, 2, 102, 150beeswax, 140, 168–169bio-controls, 118Bisphenol A (BPA), 5Blue Planet II, 16, 200bokashi, 159Bokashi Direct (UK), 159Bonin, Liz, 7bradawl, 56, 90Bradbury, Kate, 118Brazil, 8, 177Briers, 181bullet-proof vests, 178bunting, 130, 133–134Business and Human Rights Resource-

Centre, 65

Calamagrostis, 125cane toppers, 123, 133, 198carbon-pigment, 26, 34cellular ‘paving slabs’, 146cellulose, 10–11, 46, 47, 59, 102–104cellulose acetate, 11CFCs, 156chamomile tea, 60chicken wire, 152Chillington Tools, 70, 197chimney pots, 52Chimney Sheep, The, 103Chitteram River, 12chlorofluorocarbons, 156Christian, David, 18circular economy, 17cling film, 168

cloche, 2, 104, 193; tunnels, 101, 111clootie trees, 92Coates Willow, 82coconut fibre, 30; husk, 64coffee, 122, 162–163, 165–167coir, 30, 40, 50, 62–64, 196, 198cold frames, 101, 107compost, 43–44, 48–51, 60–62, 80–81, 98–

100, 114–115, 122, 149–159, 165–166, 193–196; bins, 151; caddy, 159; heap, 62, 99–100, 122, 155, 157, 162,

195; sacks, 151copper, 53, 90, 98, 119Cora Ball, 176corn-starch, 31, 96, 102, 104cotton, 11, 20-21, 81, 86, 133, 168, 170, 176crop protection, 2, 112; rotation, 110,

116–117cushions, 97, 130, 137, 139–140

Dalek composter, 153deckchairs, 133, 136decking, 130, 141–144;

decking oil, 143DEFRA, 16deposit return schemes, 35DeWitt, 102dibber, 71Don, Monty, 77, 128driftwood, 90drip irrigation systems, 75Dualit, 166DuPont, 181

Eco Grid, 146EcoExpert, 33Ecogen Recycling, 29Edible Culture Nursery, 32, 197eggshells, 57Ellegard, 46enamel, 73, 81, 161, 163, 166Enviropack, 163EPP, 156Ethical Consumer, 65ethylene, 6EU Timber Regulations, 142EVA foam, 97Everedge, 147Evoware, 18Expanded Polypropylene, 156

fairy lights, 130fatbergs, 10–11fedge, 110

INDEX


felted wool, 103fence, 101, 110, 121, 128fence panels, 128fencing, 2, 96fencing wire, 96fennel, 125fertilizers, 20, 104, 112–114, 117, 173Filcris, 186Fimo, 92fishing lines, 8; nets, 13Fiskars, 70fleece, 2, 95, 101, 103, 105, 111–112, 122,

124, 173–176flesh-footed shearwater chicks, 7Fluorosurfactant PFOA, 178forks, 70Fowler, Alys, 110, 156Friends of the Earth, 6fungal growth, 51, 59, 62

gaberdine, 176garbage banks, 18garden furniture, 86, 136–139, 186Garden Square, The, 103geotextiles, 101gloves, 2, 78, 176, 180–181goggles, 89Gore-Tex, 178–179Graduate, The, 4grass clipping, 103, 193; hooks, 77gravel, 2, 104, 145, 146; resin bonded, 143Great Bubble Barrier Project, 14Great Pacific Garbage Patch, 12Green Gardener, The, 30Green Johanna, 154, 156greenhouse gases, 6, 65, 94Guerrilla Gardening, 95Gypsophila, 125

Hairy Pot Company, 30, 198hammocks, 137hand tools, 71, 73, 78–79, 82hazel, 123HCFCS, 156hemp, 86, 103, 176herbicides, 20hessian, 43, 111, 152hibernacula, 119horticultural glass, 107Horticulture Week, 29hoses, 74–75hot composting, 156–157; Hot Bin, 156;

hot-box, 99Hügelkultur, 99

Hydrochlorofluorocarbons, 156

Impact Recycling, 186Indian hoe, 79; sandstone, 142; soap

fruits, 170in-ground composting, 158International Marine Litter Research

Unit, 16Iroquois farmers, 125irrigation, 20, 59, 61, 75, 146ivory, 6

Jakarta, 18Japan, 13Japanese mame, 52jasmine, 127jiffy pods, 50; pots, 30jute mats, 103; hessian sacks, 152; twine,

121

Keep Cups, 163Kevlar, 178, 181kirpi, 79kneelers, 96knives, 79kokedama, 57

labels, 2, 87, 88-94, 122, 198, 200Lamb, Joleah, 9landscaping fabric, 101; tiles, 146lanterns, 57, 133, 142larvae, 19, 117–118latex, 30, 74–75, 123, 176–177, 181leaf composting, 152; litter, 152; mould,

150, 152leather, 21, 97, 177–180lime, 112, 173linseed oil, 140, 179loppers, 78–79Lord Howe Island, 7

manure, 2, 31, 99, 114–115, 117, 150Mariana Trench, 12McColl, Jim, MBE, 156MDPE, 146methane, 6, 65Mexico, 125micro fauna, 42microbeads, 3, 13, 17, 170–171, 197microbes, 9, 114, 152microclimate, 193microfibres, 9, 102, 135, 139, 174–176microorganisms, 43, 137, 150microparticles, 12


microplastics, 9, 17, 19, 123, 175Miscanthus, 30, 64, 125misters, 76–77Modiform, 33moleskin, 176Muddy Faces, 81mulch, 95, 103–104, 114, 149–150, 152,

193; sheet, 104Mulch Organic, 103, 104

nanoplastics, 9Napac, 32National Trust, The, 28NaturePots, 32neoprene, 97netting, 101, 121–122, 124, 133nettle, 86, 114neuston ecosystem, 14New Zealand, 151, 155, 157nicotine, 11Nik Wax, 179, 180nitrogen, 62, 114, 117, 125North Atlantic, 13, 115North Pacific Gyre, 13Nutscene, 45, 86, 89, 123, 198nylon, 135, 179

oak, 54, 90, 123, 198oasis, 96obelisks, 129Ocean Clean Up, 14oilcloth, 140oilskins, 179Opinel, 79orchid, 29, 44

paper pulp, 33, 62–63pathogens, 45, 157paving, 136, 143, 145Pearson, Dan, 81peat, 30, 50, 63, 196pebbles, 91pegs, 90, 95–96, 105pergola, 129, 137Perlite, 43permaculture, 110, 156pest control, 94, 118; deterrent, 111PET, 17, 19, 75, 151pets, 75, 103PG Tips, 166plankton, 9plastic-coated, 124, 164plastic cups, 1, 8, 12, 163 Polar Fleece, 174

polycarbonate, 107, 110polyculture, 110polyester, 111, 139, 179polyether, 179polyethylene, 138, 145polymers, 5, 17, 143, 179–80polypropylene, 26, 34, 101–102, 111, 139polystyrene, 156, 162polythene, 46, 106polytunnels, 98, 106polyurethane, 75, 138–139pond, 119Posi Pots, 32, 197pot bound, 46; maker, 54–55potato peels, 31propagation benches, 97; propagator, 60,

98–99propene, 101Pukka Tea, 166PVA glue, 92PVC, 74, 92, 130–138, 177, 179

quarry dust, 147

raffia, 86, 123–124rakes, 70, 73, 85rats, 151rattan, 81, 138–139Real Seed Co, The, 94RECOUP, 186recycled paper, 20, 33, 45; plastic, 146, 174resins, 33rhubarb forcers, 112rice husks, 30, 32rubber, 74–75, 123, 177; gloves, 123;

rubberised, 181

sand, 86, 98, 133, 194; -paper, 87; -pits, 186

sanitary towels, 11Sao Paulo state, 8Sapindus mukorossi, 170scythes, 71, 77sea bins, 15; floor, 16; seagrass, 9, 81, 86 Sea Shepherd, 7seaweed, 18, 30, 114–116secateurs, 78–79seed balls, 95; bank, 103; bombs, 95; cat-

alogues, 94; packets, 94, 198; storing boxes, 95

Sempervivum, 52sheds, 84–85, 131, 144silicone, 74, 95, 163, 169silk, 135, 176


Slat, Boyan, 13slate, 89, 198slugs, 80, 118–119snails, 14, 175soap berries, 170; flakes, 170; nuts, 170;

spray, 118sofas, 130, 136–138soil blocking, 48, 50; conditioners, 112,

150; contamination, 26; pH, 193solar panels, 142; powered, 140Soparco, 32soya, 140, 168spades, 70, 73, 85Spear and Jackson, 70sperm whale, 8Starck, Philippe, 21steel edging, 147; mesh, 181; stainless, 70,

166; toecap, 178strimmer, 77sunglasses, 182–183Surfers Against Sewage, 18Sussex trug, 80Sustainable Urban Drainage Systems

(SUDS), 147Sweet Peas, (Parsons, R), 94SympaTex, 179

Tarpaflex, 81tax, 3, 22, 35teabag, 165tee shirts, 85terracotta, 1, 25, 32, 42–44, 48, 59, 76, 93,

123, 195TerraCycle, 186Tetrapak, 164–165, 167Thompson, Professor Richard, OBE, 16Three Sisters, 125–126Thunbergia, 127ties, 23, 85, 124, 140Tildenet, 96timber, 20, 84–85, 128, 142–143tin, 51, 56–57, 73, 85, 90, 95, 112, 119toilet roll, 50, 51, 62tomatoes, 124–126tool libraries, 71; stores, 84TPU (thermoplastic polyurethane), 178Trash Wheel, 14trays, 27, 32–33, 40, 44–45, 49, 55, 58, 62,

91, 94, 97–98, 100, 188, 190, 195, 198trellises, 85, 124trench, 61, 158Trivex, 182trowel, 68, 71trug, 80

tunnels, 2, 105, 107, 193Tupperware, 95, 169turf pile, 80Turner, Tiffanie, 136, 199turtles, 6–8, 14twine, 58, 79, 85–86, 124–125, 128, 198

Unconventional Gardener, The, 60University of Exeter and Plymouth, 7;

Georgia, 15; Hawaii, 5; Santa Barbara, 15; Tasmania, 16

UV light, 84, 183, 190Uzbekistan, 21

Vermiculite, 50Veronicastrum, 125Victorians, 99, 105vine eyes and hooks, 128Vipots, 32, 196

water butt, 76; tank, 52, 76watering cans, 2, 73, 186waterproofing, 81, 97, 176, 178–180waxed card, 91; fabrics, 81, 97, 140, 176,

179weed barrier, 102; control fabrics, 102;

killers, 112; sprays, 101WeedGuardPlus, 103wellington boots, 177wheelbarrow, 74, 81–82, 195wheelie bin, 153whin dust, 147white spirit, 87wildflower lawn, 145; meadows, 77willow, 80–82, 110, 123wipes, 10–11wishing trees, 92Wong, James, 60Woolly Shepherd, The, 103worm bins, 158

yogurt, 43, 58Yorkshire Flowerpots, 43

zinc, 2, 45, 47, 52–53, 73, 76, 81, 112, 150


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