MOBOT Shows How To Use Environmental Consciousness by Recycling Plastics from Garden Centers and Botanical Gardens

-





GMPRO Garden Center Magazine ran a story today about the need for garden centers and botanical gardens with environmental consciousness to find a way of recycling plastic garden pots.


" Steve Cline at Missouri Botanical Garden has created perhaps the most successful horticultural pot recycling program in U.S. This past year, the program collected more than 100,000 pounds of horticultural plastics."


According to the story, 80-million tons of plastic end up needing to be recycled every year.


"In the horticultural industry alone, about 350 million pounds of plastic is produced each year.


The Missouri Botanical Garden's Plastic Pot Recycling Program is the largest program of its kind, recycling both plastic pots and polystyrene cell packs and trays. Since 1998, this groundbreaking program has saved over 300 tons of plastic from reaching the landfill. The program has become hugely popular with gardeners in the St. Louis metropolitan area with many participants anxiously awaiting the Garden’s annual collection period."


Monrovia Growers donated money for the purchase of recycling trailers to be used as satellite collection centers. The program was so successful that the plan is to spread more trailers around St. Louis.


Basic guidelines include: "All garden plastics are accepted including cell packs, trays, all pots of all sizes and hanging baskets. Garden edging and plastic sheeting materials cannot be recycled. Metal rings or hangers on the pots need to be removed. All soil should be shaken out of the containers. No food plastic is allowed. It is not necessary to wash the pots and trays, but we appreciate working with the material more when it is reasonably clean. Please check for rocks, metal objects and foreign materials before submitting."




By the way, every plastic bottle of water you buy and throw away takes 1,000 years to biodegrade according to Eldr Magazine's Editorial this month. (A dear friend is on the cover so I received a copy of the magazine as a gift.) Environmentally conscious water consumers filter tap water and use re-usable bottles.


TODAY IN OUR GARDEN

It was a glorious sunny afternoon for being outside. The endless tasks of this time of year get taken on, one by one.

An old rose bush has to be taken out stem by stem. Minor tree pruning of all those tiny branches continues. Alfalfa hay mulch was applied to beds. More bulbs found homes in beds and pots. Bermuda grass was dragged unwilling out of iris corms. All of a sudden an afternoon was gone with a great feeling of satisfaction remaining.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Moldy Tulip Bulbs

-
Image
Moldy tulip bulbs are a big disappointment when you are hoping to fill a bed or some pots. It is not that unusual for their skins to have a bit of penicillin mold but these are beyond that tad bit stage. Mold penetrating tulip bulb  Mold on emerging tulip bulb growth  So, what to do? The plant references say to throw them out and buy new ones but I already spent $22 for 50 of these white tulip beauties. First, they got a soak in 1% bleach solution in the kitchen sink in the hope that the bleach would stop the mold from continuing to grow without killing the life force in the bulb itself. After a good slosh around, I wiped them off to see how much damage was beneath the blue and black.  This tulip bulb is soft to the touch and there is little chance it will thrive in the soil. This basal root on these have been ruined by mold. The final step I took to try to salvage part of them  was to spray them thoroughly with fungicide.  They are all planted in the
Read more

Propagate Begonia Stem Cuttings in water - Cane-like Angel Wing Begonia

-
Image
Propagating by stem cuttings is just about the easiest way to make more begonias for next summer's garden. During the fall, I regularly trim off 3-node long cuttings and put them into the growing pots where they take root. Now that cold weather has arrived, I root the stem cuttings in a vase of water. It's a great way to produce more pots of Begonias for next summer's garden. Water the plant well the day before. Take a cutting about 4-inches long, with 3 nodes, from a healthy stem. Use a perfectly clean container. Rinse the container with a drop of bleach if you are uncertain about its spotlessness. Remove all but the top leaf or two. There should be no leaves in the water. The cutting should  have a healthy leaf node at the bottom. Don't leave a stub below the node. Place the cutting into the water, and place the container out of the sun. In a couple of weeks, you will see new roots beginning to form. Check the water periodically to make sure it is still f
Read more

Create Nesting Areas for Birds and Wildlife

-
Image
From the website, Choose Natives , this lovely and instructive article helped remind me to continue to increase the amount of habitat and nesting that we provide in our garden. Many, though not all, are native or considered to be native in Oklahoma. So, I did a little research on each recommended plant and provided a link to more information. You'll see the plant name in italics - those are my links for your edification. Here's the post Derek Stoner, Project Coordinator for the Delaware Nature Society, helped restore the 860-acre Middle Run Natural Area by “intensive habitat management”, including planting 12,000 trees and shrubs.  His lecture, ‘ Native Plants for Nesting Birds: Connecting Flora and Fauna’,  given to a group of enthusiasts at the Millersville Native Plant Conference   in Pennsylvania, focused on his observations. Here are Derek’s landscaping recommendations for attracting birds: Plant shrubs in clusters (“habitat circles”) that will create the dense
Read more