Kitchen Garden Forum

Does anyone like me, go to the tip and come back with more than they take?

Quite often I will rescue pieces of new timber that I can use on the lottie or even UPVC but today it was grass clippings. I couldn't believe how much this lady was disposing of into the skip. It was so lush and green after all the rain I couldn't resisting asking for it. It would have been such a waste of good material, so many uses for layering in the compost heap or at the bottom of the trench when I start on the potatoes, or even just as a mulch. What a find. I rarely have so much, usually just a little from my neighbour.

Beryl.

I always look in the plastics tip for those large water fountain empty bottles which sometimes get thrown away in there. With their bottoms sawn off they make wonderful free individual cloches for courgettes and similar plants. But foraging after one of them got me into difficulties on one occasion when I actually leaned over too far into the almost empty recycling skip bin to grab it, and fell in. I was stuck in there for quite a long time before somebody actually came along and rescued me. Not my finest hour!,

The tip near where I used to live was a great source of plant pots. They had a bin allocated for them. I think most tips receive pots, but they get lumped in with the other plastics.

Be very careful about retrieving other people's grass clippings. It might be that the lawn from which they came had been recently treated with pesticide of some sort — moss killer, weedkiller or whatever — and manufacturers recommend disposing of, or in any case not composting, the clippings from the first cut following application.

Yes, I'd reiterate the warning about free grass clippings if you don't know their provenance. . Our Council has a green waste recycling plant and once a year they have an Open Day when local residents can go and help themselves to the free compost they produce. Much as I like the idea of free compost, I try to grow organically in our garden as much as possible and this compost probably contains all kind of weedkiller residues from cuttings which people have dumped. I must ask the Council if they ever test their compost for such residues, but as each batch will consist of different types of material, I suspect they probably don't.

I appreciate what you sare saying about the grass clippings but I was fortunate to know they came from a garden that hadn't been treated in anyway.

Thanks for your comments, nice to know I am not the only one to benefit.

Beryl.

How about a fifty metres long electric fence complete with the things you stick in the ground, the electric box and all cables.

My partner didn't want chickens so I put it on e-bay and got £100.

If anyone removes anything at all from our extremely clean and well organized household recycling centre they're in big trouble.

We are a bit mored organised than yours Alan, our bins our are set low down so no need to reach up and over. But I agree with you we are not allowed to take stuff out, but I usually catch people before it goes in. Always kept very clean to.
They have a shop, they cream the best themselves and make a bob or two on things like furniture, cycles etc. Not sure where the money goes.

Beryl.