Y IS FOR YARD WASTE

Yard waste isn’t a typical Aussie term.  We would call this garden waste but for the sake of the A-Z challenge and seeing that the letter Y isn’t prevalent in garden talk I have grabbed the first straw that floated past.

Typically, waste isn’t waste.  All those leaves you rake up – perfect for giving your garden a carbon boost. 

Grass clippings – compost material,

Weeds – compost tea,

Spent plants – compost material

Veggie peelings – worm food. 

Every thing that was alive and some things that are dead can be recycled to help nurture, water and feed the next lot of plants coming up.

In summer my husband mows the lawn every fortnight (well, that’s if we don’t get rain).  I have two compost bins that will be full after 3 mows.  We rake up the leaves beforehand, we mow over the top of them, and then put them into the compost. 

I also put any paper we have no use for into the shredder and compost that.  

Veggie peelings etc go into the worm farm and the veggie plants themselves go into the compost.

Soft weeds (without seeds) go into a covered bucket of water and are left to rot down (about 2 - 3 weeks depending on the temperature) to make a very nutrient rich tea.  I use this on seedlings and pot plants especially. They love it.

The only thing I don’t use is weeds that have gone to seed or diseased clippings.  I place these in a black plastic bag and sit it out in the sun for a couple of weeks.  This kills the seeds and the disease but I don’t trust it to go back into the compost.  I throw these bags out into our garbage.

Composting is probably one of the most satisfying ways to reduce landfill and your veggies love it.