Plastic pollution is everywhere with microplastics contaminating our environment and food chain. Is a plastic-free garden possible? It can be challenging but there are simple ways to reduce plastic in the garden. By thinking outside the box (especially if it’s plastic packaging), we can definitely minimise the potential for contaminated soil and food gardens by opting for alternatives.

Plastic Free July is a global movement inspiring people be part of the solution to plastic pollution. I’ve taken this challenge on myself and found there are plenty of creative ways to reduce plastic in the garden. I hope they inspire you too!

17 Plastic-Free Garden Supplies and Solutions

These are simple ways to minimise plastic or avoid it altogether.

1. Avoid weed mat

It kills soil life by limiting access to water, air and light. Consider a natural fibre option like breathable hessian or old cotton sheets. Both are compostable solutions to suffocate weeds and prevent access to sunlight so they die. In some situations, cardboard, cotton sheets or sheet mulching may work well. These options are more sustainable and encourage a healthy soil community.

2. Raise your own seeds

Instead of buying seedlings in plastic punnets, sow seeds and grow your own. Even better, make seed raising mix instead of buying it using my five easy recipes.

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3. Use natural pots

Plastic-free alternatives include terracotta, ceramics (fired clay with non-toxic glazes), coconut fibre (coir), stone and wood. There are many benefits to upcycling items and repurposed planters like shoes, bathtubs, colanders and other containers. Most of these options are durable too.

4. DIY plastic-free seed raisers

Make your own small compostable seed germination pots. Natural materials like banana leaves or cardboard toilet rolls are ideal because they have a short temporary life. They can be planted in the hole or pot with the seedling, preventing transplant shock. These biodegradable materials also add valuable carbon to the soil.

Banana leaf ‘pots’ with homemade seed raising mix and germinating seeds from my workshop

5. Make your own fertilisers

By recycling the nutrients in your kitchen scraps and garden ‘waste’, you can make a variety of free plant fertilisers. This minimises the need to buy products in plastic bottles and packaging. A few DIY fertilisers include:

• Compost. Close the loop on food waste by turning your household food scraps and grass clippings into healthy soil.
• Liquid plant ‘teas’. Soaking the leaves of nutrient-rich plants like comfrey, stinging nettles, yarrow or dandelions in water extracts valuable bioavailable minerals readily taken up by plants. Why not grow plants to make your own liquid fertiliser?
• Provide food for worms to compost in a worm farm. Composting worms produce nutrient-rich worm castings (vermicast) that you can use to build healthy soil, add to potting and seed raising mixes, and as a plant food.
• Banana peel fertilisers. There are many ways to reuse banana peels to feed your plants.
• Fireplace or wood ash. Add potash (potassium) to your compost to recycle this nutrient into your soil.
• Leaf mould. Composted leaves make a humus-rich dark soil conditioner.
• Crush eggshells. Powdered eggshells are high in calcium carbonate and ideal to add to your soil.

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