3 Ways to Manage Garden Waste

Studies have shown that seeing or being with plants and other natural elements can provide stress relief. For this reason, it’s not a bad idea to have your own garden at home where you can grow shrubs, small trees, and colorful flowers. You can also choose to grow your own food and have fruit-bearing and vegetable-yielding plants right in your own backyard.

However, gardens can be one of the most significant sources of wastes in any community. To ease the local government’s burden of managing the community’s waste, you might want to set up your own garden waste management system. In this article, we present at least three tips that you might want to consider.

Composting

To keep your garden aesthetically pleasing, the plants there must be trimmed regularly. You also need to remove the weeds that compete with your plants for nutrients. These maintenance practices lead to a significant amount of organic waste. Thankfully, this kind of waste is highly recyclable through composting.

You can choose to set up your own composting site; there are several resources online that provide a step-by-step process for this. You can also choose to donate your waste to your local recycling centers. If your garden is sizable, you might need the services of local dumpster companies to transport your organic waste.

Burning

You can get rid of dried organic waste by burning it. You can set up your own makeshift incinerator so that you can collect the ashes, which you can use as compost. You can be a bit more practical if there are twigs and chips from bigger branches. For example, you can use them as fuel for a backyard barbecue party for family and friends.

Be careful with this method, as there might be communities with formal policies that regulate or prohibit burning in yards. Burning releases carbon dioxide, which can alter air quality in large amounts. Hence, local governments can be expected to take precautions.

Another disadvantage of burning is that it cannot be done all year round even if your community does not have restrictions against it. During the rainy months, burning might be a challenge, as organic waste won’t dry up easily. 

Composting requires time and space that you might not have. Burning organic waste can help, but it has inherent risks that you might not be fully equipped to manage. Hence, you will be left with no other viable option except to rely on your community’s waste management system.

You will have to separate your waste properly and follow the collection schedule. You might want to adjust your trimming and cleaning schedule based on the collection schedule so that waste doesn’t sit for too long on your property.

Gardens are effective stress-busters because they bring you closer to nature. They can also serve as your daily source of exercise. Like anything else though, keeping a garden has its price. The complexity and size of your garden should depend on your willingness to invest time and effort on the accompanying waste management responsibility.

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