As part of the Green Citizens programme, our Flower Pod Newark Green Citizens have been thinking about how we can reuse and recycle both at Flower Pod and at home.

Lou, Project Coordinator at Flower Pod Newark said “The polytunnels get very hot in the summer and it takes a lot of watering to keep the plants alive. Each Green Citizen was encouraged to bring in bottles from home for recycling into watering devices.”

Green Citizen Charlotte said “We use pop bottles and cut the bottoms off and put water in it and it gets to the roots."

Last year the group used about 50 plastic bottles to water the fruit and vegetables growing in one polytunnel. We kept the bottles and plan to reuse them again next year.

We have installed 3 large 2400l water containers which will collect water from the roof of our classroom building. Filters in the containers will remove leaves and moss, and a pump will allow us to run a hose pipe to water the garden. We hope this rainwater harvesting will conserve a lot of water.

The Green Citizens have also worked hard cleaning lots of plant pots and seed trays, preparing them for next year and checking which ones can be recycled or reused.