Wherever you look in garden centres, your shed or greenhouse, you are likely to find plastic in one form or another.

The most obvious include plastic pots, hosepipes, seed trays and watering cans, but there are also items which are less visible and which over time will disintegrate, leaving tiny plastic particles in their wake – ending up in the soil.

Publisher and keen gardener Louise Boland, who has a half-an-acre outside her home in Oxfordshire, had found little bits of plastic all over her garden – such as, plastic bags and sweet wrappers blown in as litter, synthetic string, shards of hard plastic chipped off watering cans.

She has now written The Plastic-Free Gardener, which looks at the problems plastics create globally and how gardeners can minimise use of them, researching UK retailers and their efforts to ditch plastic. She has included a section at the back of the book of those who go above and beyond.

Realistically, the amateur gardener will likely need to compromise, she admits. She hasn’t found an alternative to the plastic hosepipe and still uses an old plastic wheelbarrow which is fit for purpose. She also has a lawnmower with plastic elements.

Isle of Wight County Press: Author, Louise BolandAuthor, Louise Boland (Image: Louise BolandPA)

“For me, it’s about thinking about how not to let plastic escape into the environment because once it’s there it can last for hundreds of years.”

Among the worst forms of plastic to use in the garden are those which disintegrate, flake off or get lost in the earth, such as torn ends of woven plastic ground cover polypropylene membrane and beads of polystyrene plant blocks packaging which are taken by the slightest breeze, she says.

Plastic-encased garden wire is another nasty as it’s nibbled by wildlife, while ‘invisible’ green plastic clips used to tie up plants can all be lost in the garden.

She offers the following simple tips to help gardeners get to grip with plastic-free practices:

Use natural twine

  • Ditch your grass trimmer with plastic wires
  • Grow from seed
  • Find alternatives to plastic seed trays
  • Ask for non-plastic packaging
  • Ditch the plastic pot at the shop
  • Make your own compost

The Plastic-Free Gardener by Louise Boland is published by Fairlight Books on Feb 22, price £14.99.