Page 28 - Simply Vegetables Spring 2022

Saved from the skip (part 2)
A more ambitious type of recycling project is to figure out ways to re-purpose soft drinks cans. The modern Aluminum alloy can are now considerably lighter than soft drink cans of the 1970’s. The sides of the can are now processed from sheet metal a tenth of a millimeter in thickness.
One problem I’ve had in the garden is putting markers on drills to remind me where I’ve sown seeds. Bits of sticks with the seed packets stuck on don’t last too long, black marker on plastic faded and I tried 3mm T shaped plywood tabs – these also quickly became unreadable as the plywood quickly deteriorated. The plywood marker gave me an idea about laminating them with pieces cut from clear plastic soft drink bottles. This failed, so I came up with the idea of cover the plywood with metal.
I began by cutting the two ends of a can off. Modern cans are so light that this can be done with a steel scissors. This gives a nice piece about 100mm x 150 mm (6’’ x 4’’). Next leave it flat on a brick with one or two bricks on top for the night.
When I had my little sheet of metal, I cut it to the required shape allowing for tabs to fold around the plywood Tee, a warning for anyone attempting this at home – the aluminum is very sharp.
I wrote the name of the vegetable on the red and white coloured surface using an ordinary ball point pen, Mirror style i.e.,
backwards (anyone who has tried manual printing will understand this.)
I then enveloped the sheet metal around the plywood, with the bright side facing out. The last step is to stick down the flaps with superglue. Photos illustrate the end product. A nifty drill marker to withstand the elements.
Michael Gordon
Three methods that I use to recycle various materials, all very easy and very useful.
I use old toilet rolls to start off my veg plants...peas, beans, onions etc. The first photo is a propagator which I loaded with 12 (box) and 15 (Plant Pot) giant onions already germinated, 3 varieties of different Peas X 12, 2 varieties of Broad Beans X 7 all for an early crop in my Polytunnel. The compost is my own leaf mould sieved and mixed with some horticultural grit.
The 2nd photo is a Mini Skip which can be bought in Woodies / B&Q and is a great way of storing leaves to make leaf mould.
I use old Election Posters (Any Party) to make the sides rigid and I fill 3 bags each year which break down to fill a 4th Bag which I then leave for another year. So, from start to leaf mould takes 2 years...Once you get the system working you just need to move the 3 bags of 1-year-old leaves into the 4th bag and then refill the other 3 bags
with fresh leaves...and it’s all FREE. I also use the same bags for Garden Compost which I fill with a mix of material and then leave for 2 years to break down before using.
The 3rd recycling suggestion I use is for starting Dahlias or other plants that need heat to get them started. Instead of using
a specialised heating mat or hot bed, I use an old electric blanket for bottom heat. I have a standard fold-up table (6ftX2.5ft) which has an old duvet on it, and I lay the electric blanket on top of that. I then cover the blanket with light plastic (to stop it getting wet) and put the plants on top in plastic boxes...old meat packaging boxes,
I think. I leave the blanket on the All-Night setting which generates enough heat to get the plants started. I also cover the plants or tubers with fleece to keep the heat in until they start to shoot.
Thanks to John Harford, one of our members who is also Chairman of Fingal Horticultural Society in North Dublin for submitting this article. If anyone has any more articles like this or any other topic related to growing vegetables, please send it to me for consideration for publication in Simply Vegetables.
History is recorded in the written word, but the written word is not history. Paper magazines and books will be with us for a while yet, in 2021 13.3 million books were sold a 2% rise on 2020. Gardening and cookery books apparently sell well. In first place on the top sellers list was not Sally Rooney but Charlie Macksey’s The Boy, the
28 Simply Vegetables