Composting - Photo by Jane Adams, Nature Watch

Why our garden waste can be harmful in the wild ...

I love spring. A chance to get out into the garden and clear away the winter blues! The trouble is there’s usually so much “waste”. The first lawn cuttings, over-exuberant perennials, the seed heads left out for the birds, it’s all got to go somewhere. The trouble is where?

Tuck it under a roadside hedge?
Have you ever thought of tucking it under a roadside hedge or putting it on a bit of waste ground the other side of the fence at the end of your garden? After all, it’s only garden waste, it will compost down and help the wild flowers that grow there – won’t it? NO.

Not only is this fly-tipping (and against the law) it also does a lot of harm. The wild flowers we love actually need poor soil to thrive. So, putting our garden waste on wild habitats makes the soil too rich for most of them to survive and can encourage nettles, brambles and coarse grasses to take over. Fragments of some plants in your green waste can also take root leading to vigorous “garden escapes” spreading over wild areas.

We could also be killing the wildflower seeds hidden in the soil. The heat that is produced when waste rots down can kill them. So we lose not only the wild flowers but also the wonderful variety of animal life that relies on these native plants for food. Oh, and did I mention the risk of spreading plant diseases?

Compost it at home or get the Council to do it for you !

As you’ve probably guessed dumping garden waste isn’t a good idea!

So what should we do when our gardens are overflowing with waste? First, compost. Compost bins are wonderful for turning plant matter into FREE garden compost (see details for discounted bins at the end of this article). If you have too much waste then you can either take it to a Recycling Centre or use the sacks that you can get from the Council - white ones for recycling if you have a Brown Bin for your food waste: you can put out as many sacks as you want. If your area isn’t in the Brown Bin scheme and you can’t get to a Recycling Centre you’ll need to use orange sacks. These have to go to landfill so it’s best to compost at home if you possibly can.


More Information
Discounted compost bins can be ordered from the Recyclenow website http://www.recyclenow.com/home_composting/buy_a_bin/scheme_authorities/dorset_county.html or ring 0845 076 0223 - the order line is open Monday to Friday, from 9am to 5.00pm.

Sacks for garden waste can be bought at £1 each at the council offices at Furzehill, Wimborne, Verwood, St Leonards & St Ives, Corfe Mullen, West Moors, Ferndown and Sixpenny Handley.