EASTER BANK HOLIDAY MONDAY MESSAGE: FORGET WORRYING ABOUT HALT TO GARDEN WASTE SCHEME AND LOOK AT ALTERNATIVES

ATHERSTONE and district households told to hang onto their garden waste for a month have been urged to join an Easter surge in home composting fuelled by the Covid-19 lockdown.

The uplift in interest in composting comes as North Warwickshire Borough Council was forced to halt green bin collections, blaming the decision on "many key staff" being unable to work through having to self-isolate and changes to working practices.

The Royal Horticultural Society has seen increased numbers of people seeking gardening advice as the country shut down and families were confined to their homes as the coronavirus pandemic took hold.

Views of pages on the charity's website on how to compost were up nearly 500 per cent compared to 2019, in the first nine days of the lockdown up to the beginning of April.

Research on other garden jobs has also gone up, with an almost fivefold increase in people looking up how to divide perennials, and a 40 per cent increase for both how to manage moss on lawns and sowing seeds outside.

Overall, the RHS said it has had a million views of its gardening advice pages since the lockdown began, with 300,000 people visiting the "grow your own" fruit and veg pages.

There has also been a surge in RHS members seeking out advice, with composting, sowing seeds outdoors and perennial dividing again among the top questions, and a noticeable rise in first time enquirers and beginner gardeners.

The RHS says it believes there are thousands more people taking up gardening due to the lockdown.

It is launching a new "grow at home" focus to share more exclusive advice for members and promote ways and ideas to keep more of the wider public gardening.

Sue Biggs, RHS director general, said composting is good for the environment and "produced the best soil improver there is", while another popular subject – dividing perennials – was a great way to get free plants and keep beds and borders healthy.

The RHS intends to increase its video advice content and social media to help everyone, including a new generation of gardeners, to grow. For help on composting click here.

To view the general RHS website, click here.

During the garden waste scheme moratorium in North Warwickshire, two collections will be lost –allowing the depleted refuse team to concentrate on household rubbish and increasing amounts of recycling which are an inevitable consequence of the 'stay-at-home' Government restrictions during the Covid-19 outbreak.

Coronavirus has already kicked a controversial scheme to slap a £40 charge on Atherstone and district households for collecting their green bins "into the long grass".

Last month the borough council announced it was shelving the June 1 launch until next year, admitting the community has enough to worry about with the spreading pandemic.