Tired of wasting food scraps after cooking a meal? Would love to make compost but don’t have the space? Don’t be worrying about having the space to avoid that smelly compost, here are a few ways to use your waste effectively, bypassing that smelly compost heap.
Mulching
This method adds a layer of nutrients to the top soil which then filters through to the roots. You can make mulch by drying out leftover scraps of veg when cooking, dry the veg out which can take up to a week, crush the dried food into a powder and spread over the soil.
You can also grind egg shells and coffee together into a fine powder and spread across your soil.
High tea method
Instead of drying out your left over vegetables, you can also make a compost tea with them. Fill a bucket a third of the way with the left overs (peels, tops and cores), next add some warm water to the bucket and leave out in the sun for about 5 days. Next filter out the water and place into a spray bottle, spray your plants with this for additional plant food.
Direct
You can blend your waste (as long as it isn’t seasoned) in a food blender, use this when planting, dig around 15 inches deep, fill with a thin layer of the mulch you’ve just created, top up with around another 10 inches of soil and plant your seeds before covering the rest up with soil.
Vinegar
Vinegar is great for plants, placing a table spoon of vinegar into the soil helps their defenses when they’re diseased or infested with bugs. Spraying them with a vinegar and water mix accelerates their germination, also helping them to fight off disease and bugs much more effectively.
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