If you're a fan of finding ways to utilize garden waste, one gardener shared a perfect "chop and drop" method that will help your plants thrive and create a healthy, circular ecosystem.
"A great alternative to composting is to just chop and drop," the gardener, Michael (@gardeningwithmichael), states in the opening of his Instagram Reel.
If you're keen to use your food waste compost elsewhere, then this idea will be brilliant for your garden upkeep.
The scoop
Michael explains the simplistic chop-and-drop method as "taking your garden scraps either in the veggie patch or in the garden itself and chopping it into smaller pieces, then all one has to do is leave it on the ground."
This leaves room for food waste scraps compiled from cooking to be used elsewhere. Food waste compost can be used as potting soil for indoor plants, soil amendment, and mulch for other parts of your garden, or it can be shared with local community gardens or farms.
There are also numerous hacks for how to reuse food waste to create everything from beauty products to flavorful syrups.
How it's helping
Michael specifies that this does two things: The scraps break down over time and enrich the soil so that you do not have to spend loads of money on pricey fertilizers. Meanwhile, it acts as mulch to also protect plants and soil, eliminating the need to spend even more on weed killers.
It also helps dramatically with cultivating a space for pollinators to live and invigorate a garden's ecosystem.
This method of composting can even boost water retention, resulting in a smaller water bill, which could be reduced even more with native plants. Less water waste, less spent on fertilizers and pesticides, and creating space for pollinators are the ingredients to a cheaper, easier-to-maintain, and healthier garden.
What everyone's saying
The comments were filled with viewers who vouched for how much the method works.
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Which of these benefits is your biggest motivation in gardening? Click your choice to see results and speak your mind. |
Getting outside more 🌱 "This is the only method I use when pruning," wrote one.
One even wrote about how much it works as a repellent for pests. "Pumpkin vines are so spikey that when I chop and drop them around the base of seedlings, they double as a repellent," they exclaimed.
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