So, if you’re a bit like us and have replaced or want to replace a given gardening setup, it’s a good idea to hold onto that old growing gear if you have the room for it. You might just find a great new use for it down the road!
For example, we replaced pretty much all of our old fabric grow bags a bit over five years ago now. As you now know, we use sub irrigated systems. But, we kept those “old” grow bags and pretty much end up using them every season in some capacity! They’re great for tossing in extra plants, so you can grow them out!
Sure, we replaced them for good reasons, such as reducing our labor in watering. But, when you’re growing just a few, it’s hardly as intensive as it may have been in the past. We end up hand watering a few plants anyway, so it’s not a big deal to throw a few more containers into the rotation.
We kind of have a “scale” by which we’re willing to compost our extra plants. We put so much time, energy and care into growing our tomatoes and peppers that they are actually kind of expensive to turn into compost. Whereas something like broccoli or cabbage was pretty marginal in cost, so we have no issues with composting them.
Of course, we’d prefer not to compost any plants, but it’s a challenging balance to find exactly how many plants you need. You want some extra, just in case you have any failures, and that’s not unheard of. But not so many extras that you’re wasting time, money and resources on plants that will never be grown to maturity. We’ve got our numbers down well enough where we usually only compost a couple dozen plants, at most. We do our best to find a reasonable home.
Another example is how we’ve repurposed our “earliest” gen plastic pots we used almost two decades ago! We still use these to temporarily plant perennials, store compost and countless other uses around the homestead. Seems we’re always looking for a container with a natural drain!
We’re definitely of the mindset to reduce our waste, as much as we can, without being full fledged hoarders. You’d be surprised what a new light might bring to your “old” gear!
