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The Town of Gibsons operates a Green Yard Waste Drop Off Depot that accepts residential garden trimmings. The service is open to everyone eligible for residential garbage collection in the Town of Gibsons and in the Sunshine Coast Regional District (SCRD). No commercial use is permitted.
Acceptable Green Yard Waste Items
Unacceptable Green Yard Waste Items
Backyard Burning Facts
Backyard Burning Bylaw
Green Yard Waste Depot
Naturescaping
Pesticide Free Gardening Tips
Take your Acceptable Green Yard Waste to:
Gibsons Public Works Yard
915 Henry Road, Gibsons
Hours of Operation: 8:00 a.m. to 4 p.m.
7 days a week (except Statutory Holidays)
Acceptable items:
• Tree and hedge prunings up to 35mm in diameter
• Pine needles and cones
• Grass clippings
• Garden Plants
• Windfall fruit
Unacceptable items are:
• Food waste of any kind
• Dirt, stumps, stones, sod
• Any non-organic material
• Garbage
• Construction Waste
Informative websites:
www.cityfarmer.org
www.healthylawns.net
www.environmentguide.ca/pesticides
www.greencommunities.bc.ca
http://colleenscorner.com
www.hctf.ca/nature.htm
www.wwfcanada.org/en/res_links
Pesticide Free Gardening Tips
Build a healthy, pesticide-free home garden.
“Pesticides are toxic. Not only to the species they are intended to kill, but also to non-target species, including wildlife, including us.”
World Wildlife Federation
Whenever and wherever herbicides, fungicides, and insecticides are used, they affect our whole community.
The toxic ingredients in pesticides:
• are carried on the wind,
• seep into groundwater,
• contaminate streams,
• contaminate our drinking water supply
• are tracked into houses on shoes or animal paws — where they remain in the dust and in the air which you and your family breathe.
Pesticides endanger everyone’s health whenever they are used. Ingredients in pesticides have been linked to:
• diseases of the blood
• reproductive and nervous system disorders
• birth defects in wildlife and humans.
• Alternatives to pesticides are inexpensive. With a little planning, the home gardener can enjoy nature’s best without damaging the earth, our water supply, or our ecosystem.
NATURESCAPING — easy does it!
Naturescaping is a natural, low-maintenance gardening system. Native plants are incorporated into the garden design as groundcovers and features, reducing the need for watering, mowing and other intensive gardening techniques.
Native plants are vigorous and hardy, drought-tolerant, resistant to most pests and diseases, attractive, and have adapted to survive winter cold and summer heat with minimal care.
By replacing traditional lawn (in whole or in part) with native groundcovers, rockscapes, and other intensive plantings the home gardener reduces water consumption, saves energy and improves air quality in the community.
Gas powered garden tools emit 5% of the nation’s air pollution. One gas-powered lawnmower emits 11 times the air pollution of a new car each hour of operation.
Keeping your lawn healthy and happy
Dandelions, crabgrass, grubs and chinch bugs thrive in unhealthy lawns. With less than an hour a day of care in springtime, your lawn can be weed-free by next year.
Dandelions and other undesirable plants (weeds) should be dug out by the root, to a depth of 4 inches (7—10 cm) whenever they appear. Each time the plant is dug up, the root system is weakened. Eventually, the healthy lawn will choke out the weakened weed root.
Grubs and chinch bugs attack dry, unhealthy grass. Remember to rake away accumulated thatch (dead grass, moss and other plant matter) and apply organic lime in spring.
Mowing high and watering deeply once a week throughout the growing season will keep a lawn healthy and deter grubs.
Companions in The Garden Companion plants enhance the garden’s look while attracting beneficial insects or repelling pests or diseases.
A few hints:
• Parsley, dill, lovage and sweet woodruff attract ladybugs.
• Plant tomatoes near asparagus. A substance called asparagin in asparagus repels tomato pests.
• Marigolds attract hoverflies, which prey on aphids, as well as reduce the number of nematodes in the soil.
• Chives planted around the base of fruit trees will discourage insects from climbing the trunk.
• Nasturtiums repel aphids, cabbage worms, Colorado beetles, wooly aphids, squash bugs and whiteflies.
• Garlic improves the growth and health of roses and raspberries and deters Japanese beetles.
• Basil improves the flavor of many garden vegetables, specifically tomatoes and lettuce, and repels flies and mosquitoes.
HELPFUL PREDATORS
BATS Eat insects
BIRDS Eat insects
LADYBUGS Eat aphids
LACEWINGS Eat aphids
DRAGONFLIES Eat aphids
SPIDERS Eat insects
TOADS Eat slugs earwigs, cutworms, aphids, flies
Knock it off!
Aphids and spider mites on the rosebushes? Knock them off with a full-force spray of water from the garden hose. Companion-planting chives, marigolds or nasturtiums will draw aphids’ natural predators. Spraying the bush with a soap solution or a “tea” made from citrus peel or chives will also help deter insect pests.
Other Resources:
• How to Get Your Lawn and Garden Off Drugs by Carole Rubin
• How to Get Your Lawn Off Grass by Carole Rubin
• Natural Pest Control; Alternatives to Chemicals for the Home and Garden by Andrew Lopez
• The Chemical-Free Lawn : The Newest Varieties and Techniques to Grow Lush, Hardy Grass by Warren Schultz
• Organic Gardener's Handbook of Natural Insect & Disease Control
• by Barbara W. Ellis and Fern M. Bradley
Backyard Burning
There is a ban on all backyard burning in Gibsons. Recent studies have proven that backyard burning — once the most common way of disposing of household trash and yard waste — can produce more toxic smoke than a well-run municipal incinerator, and inhaling the smoke can be more dangerous than puffing on a pack of cigarettes.
Backyard burning barrels and open fires are not able to generate the high temperatures necessary for a “clean” burn. Well-managed municipal incinerators, which are engineered to produce a high-temperature fire, exhaust less toxic matter into the air than four backyard burning barrels filled with normal household trash (which may include plastics, treated wood, and yard trimmings).
A 1995 study by the BC Ministry of Environment revealed that even small yard waste fires emit dioxins, furans, carbon monoxide, benzo(a)pyrene and fine particulate matter — pollutants that each year causes 82 deaths, 146 hospitalizations and 354 emergency room visits in BC. The effects are particularly noticeable in rural areas.
SMOKE FROM BACKYARD BURNING BARRELS INCLUDES:
• Carbon monoxide
• Formaldehyde
• Nitrogen dioxide
• Polycyclic organic matter and hydrocarbons
THEIR PRESENCE IN THE AIR INCREASES RISK OF:
• Respiratory ailments
• Asthma
• Heart disease
• Cancer
PERSONS AT GREATEST RISK INCLUDE:
• Pregnant women
• Persons with heart / lung disease
• Children and the elderly
How to Eliminate Backyard Burning:
What are the alternatives?
• Backyard composting of biodegradable materials and yard waste
• Drop off yard waste at a local community collection site
• Chop brush and clean wood to make mulch or decorative chips. A community chipper will be available in your neighbourhood. Watch the newspaper for details!
• Bag garden waste in clear biodegradable bags for free municipal Green Pickup in Spring or Fall (watch the newspaper for dates!)
• Pick up extra bag tags for weekly municipal garbage collection at Gibsons Town Hall.
• RecyRecycle. Gibsons Recycling Depot recycles or disposes of old paint, batteries, filters, glass, tin, aluminium, paper, and more. Call them for information: 604-740-1425.
For more information on Backyard Burning please visit these websites/offices:
Environment Canada Local Ventilation Index on-line
Clean Air BC
Clean Air Canada
Burnbarrel Information
Haudenosaunee Environmental Task Force
Community Resources
Sunshine Coast Clean Air Society
Box 702, Sechelt V0N 3A0
BC Lung Association
2675 Oak St., Vancouver V6H 2K2
Ph: 1.800.665.5864
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