Circular economies are becoming a buzz phrase for sustainability. The idea is that this should replace linear economy, where a company extracts raw, non-renewable materials from the planet, makes them into something which is sold to a consumer, the consumers uses it for a while then throws it away and it ends up in a landfill site somewhere. In a circular economy, the manufacturers make goods to last a long time, to be repaired or at the end of their life to be recycled, composted or repurposed so that nothing goes to waste. A much more planet friendly idea!
As a family, we are trying to apply this approach to the way we live. I am in the fortunate position to be involved with caring for six different pieces of land. What might be waste and unwanted from one site, turns into a free resource for another site. At the moment we are renovating a house that we rent out, which is leading to lots of movement in our circles.
It has struck me how few houses on the estate where the rental property is have abundant gardens. There is plenty of hardcore and plastic lawns. The estate was built in the 50’s to accomodate people who were being moved out of the slums in the centre of the city. Most houses have generous sized gardens with plenty of room for gardening. But I imagine that there was not much collective knowledge of gardening and food growing in that population. Many people are also struggling to make a living, especially with the increases in prices of everything from food to energy bills. They have little energy or resources left to start up a gardening project.
As a keen gardener, I want to improve the biodiversity and increase the edible plants at our rental property. I hope that the next tenant will appreciate some herbs, fruit trees and perennial flowers which they can harvest for free. Maybe some plants will spread into neighbours’ gardens too, giving them some free plants too. I have high hopes for the lemon balm and chocolate mint!
There are lots of plants popping up or expanding in my home garden which I don’t need there. However the rental house has almost nothing growing in the garden. Under the unkempt grass, there is a weed suppressing membrane, under this is a little layer of clay soil and then another weed supressing membrane. Under this, I found some brickwork surrounded by some soil! Patio stones and gravel cover much of the rest of the garden. So I am digging up excess plants from my home garden and transporting them to the rental property to fill the gaps when we finally get down to soil.
To make room for the plants, we are removing gravel and hardcore from the garden. Rather than take it to the dump, we are transporting it to our patch of woodland, where we have some very boggy paths which will benefit from a gravel surface. There are potholes on the track to the woods which will benefit from hardcore filling. Another waste product from preparing the garden is dandelions. I am trying out making dandelion coffee from 400g roots that I dug out of the front garden.
Having transported a load of gravel to the woodland, my husband then filled the car with wood harvested from dead trees and brought it home to heat our house with our eco-approved woodburner. (Don’t worry; there is plenty of deadwood left in the woodland for the ecosystem there.) As well as producing heat for the house, we produce ash which our quail enjoy for a dust bath, or we use to clean windows, or mix with compost and put on the garden. Again “waste” turns into a free and useful product. Thus we are making steps towards a circular life!