For the environmentally aware consumer, cardboard seems to tick all the boxes (sorry, pun not intended). It’s recyclable, renewable, reusable and biodegradable. And now we are swimming in the stuff, with online deliveries at an all-time high.
If you’re inundated with cardboard, before putting it into the recycling here are some great ways you can use it in your organic growing area.
- On the compost heap – Add torn up pieces of cardboard to your heap as part of your 50:50 perfect mix of browns and greens. (NB it is best to avoid coated cardboard for this and the next two ideas. The coating is a plastic laminate to give the board a tough shiny exterior. You don’t want that in your heap, or your soil.)
- As a mulch – Spread cardboard over bare soil to protect it against winter rains. Even better if you put a layer of organic matter such as leafmould underneath. The worms and other soil life will enjoy processing both, giving you a lovely friable soil – ready for spring planting.
- To suppress weeds – New allotment needs clearing? Slash down weed growth, and put down overlapping sheets of cardboard. Weight them down with a thick layer of compost or well-rotted manure, and leave for 6 – 12 months. No digging. The weeds will die off and become easy to pull out, and you’ll have a rich, well-structured soil to grow in.
- Toilet rolls as seed planters – The perfect answer to cut out the plastic in your seed sowing. Cardboard rolls are particularly good for large seeds eg sweet peas or beans. It allows them to develop a long root system, and you can eventually plant the whole package, roll and seedling, into the soil.
- Curled up inside pots for insect shelters – Helpful insects such as ladybirds, lacewings and earwigs need somewhere to nest and hang out through winter. Rolled up corrugated cardboard tucked inside pots provide the perfect ‘bug hotel’.
- Storage in the potting shed – Reused cardboard boxes make a free storage system in your shed, ie for tubers, tools, string etc. A good way to keep freshly-pulled potatoes, beets and carrots; plus hand tools, string and all those gardening bits and bobs.
- Temporary windbreak or sunshade – Very large cardboard sheets, supported between posts, can act as a temporary windbreak or sunshade for delicate plants.
- A way to collect debris – If you are digging out weeds or clearing a bed, use a sheet of cardboard to put your diggings onto. That way you can sort plants from weeds, collect excess soil, remove weed tap roots and collect foliage for the compost heap.
- Create a bird scarer – Rip up sheets of cardboard and pin them to strings hung across your veg patch. The network of strings and flapping cardboard will prevent pigeons from landing and eating your precious brassicas.
What to avoid
- Some cardboards are specially treated, making it more difficult for the natural pulp fibres to degrade. This can be plastic lamination (greetings cards or boxes with a shiny exterior) or wax-coating (which requires layering cardboard with chemicals that make it harder to tear or break down). Avoid putting them on your compost heap or using them as a mulch.
- Nearly all cardboard delivery boxes seem to have plastic tape sealing them. That also doesn’t biodegrade.
And finally, not all cardboard is made from recycled paper pulp. The wood and paper fibres break down as they age. This means that fresh paper is needed to make fresh cardboard, which means cardboard’s sustainability rating is reduced. But we think it’s still better than plastic.
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Originally posted at gardenorganic.org.uk
