After months of recipes, I’ve decided it’s time to stop telling you what to do with food and start telling you what to do with the things you usually throw away. Besides, it’s October. Spring is properly underway, the weeds have discovered they have somewhere to be, and everything on the islands is growing with the confidence of a person who has never paid a water bill.
So this month, we’re gardening. But not properly. I’m interested in the sort of gardening that happens when you look around the house and think, “Surely that old thing can be used for something”.
PLANT SOMETHING IN A TIN
Those empty baked bean, tomato and coffee tins make perfectly good little herb pots. Punch a few holes in the bottom, give them a rinse, fill them with potting mix and plant basil, parsley, coriander, thyme or whatever else you regularly buy and then forget to use. You can paint them if you’re the crafty type.
MAKE A COMPOST HOLE
You don’t need an elaborate composting system. Dig a hole in the garden, add your vegetable scraps, coffee grounds and crushed eggshells, cover it with soil and let nature get on with it. You’ll be amazed at how quickly a collection of things you considered rubbish turns into something that makes your garden very happy. Just avoid meat, dairy and anything that will attract the neighbourhood possum to your new subterranean restaurant.
GROW SOMETHING FROM THE SUPERMARKET
Before you throw away the bottom of your spring onions, put them in a glass of water. They’ll grow again. Celery bases can do the same, so can some lettuces. It feels vaguely like cheating at gardening, which is precisely why I like it.
GIVE OLD THINGS A NEW LIFE
An old colander is a surprisingly excellent hanging planter. A cracked bucket can become a tomato pot. An unused bathtub is basically a raised garden bed waiting for its moment. And if you have an old pair of gumboots with a hole in them, congratulations; you now have two novelty planters.
Got an old candelabra gathering dust? Give it a new role as a bird feeder. Simply fill the candle cups with bird seed and place it somewhere in your garden where visiting birds can enjoy their meal. It’s a clever way to turn an unwanted decorative item into something useful, and add a little extra life to your garden at the same time.
MAKE A SEED LIBRARY
This one is for the organised among us. Save seeds from things you’ve successfully grown and put them into labelled envelopes or jars. Swap them with neighbours. Our island communities are particularly good at this sort of thing. Someone grows something spectacular, someone else wants to grow it, and before long the entire neighbourhood has the same tomato. This is how gardening should work.
PLANT FOR THE BEES AND OTHER INSECTS
A few flowering herbs and plants can turn a small garden into a useful little feeding station for bees, butterflies and other pollinators. Think of it as opening a tiny cafe for the neighbourhood insects. No menu required, no bookings necessary, just plenty of flowers and a steady supply of pollen. And if you’re feeling particularly hospitable, why not provide somewhere for them to stay. This charming insect hotel, pictured here, is the work of local Russell Island artist Sandy Ward. Her inventive creations provide little homes where insects can shelter and nest. You can find Sandy and her work at RicArts.
AND FINALLY, LEAVE SOMETHING ALONE
This may be my favourite gardening advice. Not everything needs pruning, not everything needs spraying, and not everything that appears in your garden needs to be immediately identified and removed. Sometimes you can simply watch something grow and see what it becomes. Which, really, is the best bit of gardening. You put something in the ground, forget about it for a while, and eventually it presents you with something you didn’t expect.
Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have some perfectly good rubbish to turn into a garden.
