Dealing With Garden Debris

Every autumn, you begin harvesting bumper crops of vegetables! With that harvest, you'll have lots of extra plant material to get rid of. Here are some helpful tips on what you can do with your green debris.

The best way to get rid of your extra plant material is to chop it and return it to the soil, either by burying it directly in your garden beds or by starting a compost bin. You can also lay the chopped material between rows of plants, or dry it in your paths.

Some plant leaves can simply be shredded by hand. Stems and vines can be cut up with a pair of small clippers. Larger items or heavy stems can be chopped. Machetes, sugar cane knives, cleavers, and hedge clippers work fine for chopping. Find the tool that works best for you. Use a scrap of old lumber as a chopping block.

If you have a large volume of debris, why not start a compost pile? Mix your chopped green material with fall leaves that are plentiful around harvest time. You might also donate your chopped greens to a fellow gardener who is making a compost pile.

Copyright © 2003 Brian Ballard. All rights reserved.