Don’t throw the plastic out with the bathwater

By Victoria Plum

Plastic bags are like gold dust. I recently took a plant in a pot to a friend and meanly kept the carrier bag, whereas in the past I would have left it with the recipient.

Plastic bags are also useful. I can cart plants in the car in them and not have them leak water and soil everywhere.

I can keep salad stuff fresh and moist in the fridge and I can climate control seedlings on my window sill.

My collection of plastic trays is years old, and enables me to control, and be economical with, the amount of water I use for seedlings and plants, both indoors and out.

I cut plastic milk bottles into strips for plant labels, writing on them with a fibre-tip pen. No fancy slate plant labels for me such as those sold for a substantial price in certain large stately-home shops locally.

And where does the slate come from? Is it hewn by hippies in Cornwall or Wales, tied up with homespun string made from the hair of passing hares, packed by hand and transported by bicycle?

Or is it sliced from the despoiled Chinese countryside by very poorly paid peasants, and then transported by a container ship from China (how many miles?) just to make our gardens look “designer planned”? (I do try not to be cynical.)

So, really what I mean to say is that plastic has its uses. I try to use as little as possible and not to waste it. But I would be stuck without it.

Photo: Tina Sutton