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Post by Deleted on Oct 17, 2006 10:18:16 GMT
Hi all,
Following on from the 'Cuttings for over-wintering thread' (plastic bottles as cloches, meat trays as seed tray saucers), what other things have you found can be re-cycled for garden use? ... cheers ...
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Post by Deleted on Oct 17, 2006 11:09:10 GMT
I've just bought a paper shredder - can't be too careful these days - the shredded paper can then be used in the compost bin.  I use plastic bottles to store rainwater in the house as I prefer to water my house plants through the winter with water at room temperature - not such a shock for them compared to water straight from the butt in the middle of winter  |
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Post by piggingardener on Oct 17, 2006 11:29:27 GMT
I use the envelopes that come with junk mail for seed storage and use dried tea bags for the bottom of pots, keeps the compost in and allows the water in and out. I also use plastic food trays for seed trays. Yoghurt pots cut up make good plant labels especially when you give lots of plants away as I do Not really recycling, but I also use kiln dried sand for mixing with tiny seeds when sowing, it makes it much easier to ensure even distribution. Anyone got any more suggestions?? PG |
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Post by Deleted on Oct 17, 2006 11:56:09 GMT
either cut plastic milk bottles in half and skewer a few holes in the bottom for more wee square/oblong pots (which fit better in a "meat" drip tray than round pots) or just cut them in half, upturn the top bit into the base and sow in the top half leaving it to drain into the bottom (get me ?).
i never have enough small pots lying around when I need them.
Pot Noodle pots (not that I ever eat them), and local icreamery tall tubs also get used for potting up seedlings.
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Post by Plocket on Oct 17, 2006 12:31:56 GMT
I use tea-bags in small pots of seedlings to stop the soil falling out. I cut up milk bottles for plant labels. I shred paper for my composter. I use drinking-yoghurt pots for cane toppers, and also corks. I've crumbled corks for mulch too but nearly knackered the blender doing it!!! I sometimes use corks as crocks too. I use vegetable trays to stand my seedlings in and the taller ones as propagating trays. I use plastic bottles as a drip watering system if going on holiday: cut the bottom off the bottle and pierce a couple of tiny holes in the lid. Turn the bottle upside down and fill it with water, and the water will slowly drip into the container it is standing in. I use kitchen roll as capillary matting when going on holiday too! That's about it I think!!!
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Post by toonia on Oct 17, 2006 12:39:55 GMT
The Pongster's medicine comes in small envelopes or paper bags -one of the few places you can still get paper bags is the vet's! Perfect for collecting and storing seed. There are even lines drawn on the front so you can write what the seeds are!
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Post by Deleted on Oct 17, 2006 14:04:05 GMT
Plocket, the kitchen-towel-as-capillary-matting idea is brilliant - I'm definitely going to try that one out! ... cheers ...
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Post by Plocket on Oct 17, 2006 16:10:59 GMT
You need to use at least a couple of layers CC, and so far the best I've used is Winnie the Pooh kitchen roll!!!
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Post by Plocket on Oct 17, 2006 16:13:40 GMT
PML! Now you know!!! |
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Post by 4pygmies on Oct 17, 2006 16:36:46 GMT
I use plastic milk bottles as pourers for things like bird feed, peanuts and gravel. They are very useful with the top cut off and shaped. I use old ice cream carton lids cut up as plant labels and with drainage holes the cartons are a good size for overwintering seedlings and because they stack next to one another without wasting space I find them easier to water. No pools of mouldy water getting smelly in the trays. It's quite hard to actually think of ways you recycle isn't it? I take it so much for granted that I will reuse whatever I can, I'm sure everyone else is the same.
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Post by Juliet on Oct 17, 2006 16:54:52 GMT
Our old kitchen door (one of those ones with glass panels) is currently propped against the side of the house pretending to be a cold frame.
I use polystyrene squiggles as crocks - they don't drain as well as actual crocks or gravel but they're fine for plants which like to stay reasonably damp.
And I've mentioned this on the Beeb, but it's worth saying again (still can't remember where I read it first so sorry if it was your idea) - I've started collecting the water we would otherwise waste by running the tap while we're waiting for it to get hot - we keep a jug by the sink & one by the washbasin & empty them into an old dustbin (which is pretending to be a water butt).
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Post by Deleted on Oct 17, 2006 18:21:37 GMT
I made a compost heap from old fence posts and fence panels.
Cut the rotten parts off the posts and took apart the panels,
It lasted for three years but eventualy rotted.
Ive now got 2 plastic ones.
I use empty juice bottles as bird feeders. i break up plystyrene and use to mix in with my compost, i use this instead of per lite.
I use ice lolly sticks as plant labels yogurt pots for potting up seedlings.
Regards karenwl
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Post by isabella on Oct 17, 2006 18:42:57 GMT
We use yoghurt drink bottles as cane tops Old tights or stockings cut into 3/4" strips make brilliant plant ties!  |
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Post by beejay on Oct 17, 2006 18:48:22 GMT
We started to collect the drinking yoghurt bottles after we saw yours Pam. Quicker than Mr beejay drilling holes in corks!
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Post by Deleted on Oct 17, 2006 18:54:03 GMT
Isabella i like the cane caps i usualy give them to my school but im going to keep some for my new veg beds ive made.
Karenwl
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Post by isabella on Oct 17, 2006 18:55:58 GMT
Half the plots on the allotment site now have rows of little white bottles!!!
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Post by piggingardener on Oct 18, 2006 9:45:08 GMT
The plastic "corks" from wine bottles make good plant pot feet. Just slice off a shaving to make them flat on one side - mind your fingers!!!
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Post by Deleted on Oct 18, 2006 12:48:55 GMT
Hi all ... here's a suggestion from the owner of our local hardware store - he swears by it. Gave me this tip when I went in to buy the materials for a cold frame (this is a guy who's always thinking of way to stop his customers spending money!).
Get an old vegetable crate - the wooden kind with slatted sides (I got one from the local greengrocer). Tack bubble-wrap around the sides, and tack a loose sheet of bubble wrap over the open top of the crate. Tack this top sheet only to one side, so that you can peel it back for ventilation and access. He also suggested tucking a bit of building insulation material around the bottom, still leaving enough bubble wrap for light to get through. My cuttings are now happily ensconsed in this contraption ... I'll let you know next spring if it works ;D ... cheers ...
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Post by Chuckles on Nov 26, 2006 12:20:30 GMT
Wrong time of year to be telling you this really but, been tidying the shed out a bit this morning and came across a load of empty folded up compost bags. It reminded me that these are useful for lining out hanging baskets, black side out. Have used old carpet remants for this too Saying that, it might stop you throwing any you may have away and saving them for hanging basket time ;D |
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Post by Dutchy on Dec 4, 2006 18:25:45 GMT
Now is about the time that I cut down the black remains of the perennials. Sometime there still is a bit of bamboo cane in there. Not fit to support plants next year but when sawn into finger length bits per three a quick alternative to those expensive bits that keep your pots of the ground.
I also use off cuts from our neighbours new pavement tiles for that purpose. Just two laid down like railway sleepers.
Dutchy
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Post by Juliet on Dec 4, 2006 18:46:24 GMT
That reminds me - I use those offcut bits of wood you get in flatpack packaging to keep my planters off the ground.
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Post by sweetleaf on Jan 10, 2007 2:24:35 GMT
I have 4 old belfast sinks and a Victorian toilet being used as planters and also a chimney pot which is doing duty as a jardiniere, a telephone box has done duty as a cold frame, and is currently out of service until I get more glass  I made a set of three compost bins from pallets at the lottie, and use large milk bottles of the plastic type as waterers, and anti bump padding for eyeline obstructions to prevent injury,being white it helps you to see the obstruction better at dusk.I also as scoops for things like chicken manure pellets. I use recycled guttering to sow peas and afterwards as a watering device for the row, and also for watering the beans. Im always trying to use old things in new ways, its quite fun. |
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Post by fozzie on Jan 17, 2007 18:12:16 GMT
Use the cardboard middles of kitchen rolls and toilet rolls as degradable seed pots rather than peat pots.
F
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Post by Cheerypeabrain on Jan 17, 2007 20:01:12 GMT
OH made the compost bins from old packing crates
Cold Frame is made using recycled bricks (from an old coal bunker in a mate's back garden) toughened glass from the skip at OH's workplace in a frame made out of old wood.
OH made staging in the GH from old pallets (work again gawd bless em)
mini patio outside the conservatory, made out of leftover concrete filled with old cobbles, rocks and marbles.....
Gazebo at back of garden, only the trellis was bought new, everything else (including roof felt) reclaimed wood from fence etc...
One of my water-buts is an oil drum, scrubbed out with a hole for the down pipe and a tap on the bottom. ;D
The burn-bin is an old oil drum.
Grow potatoes in our old hot water tank
Bird table was rescued from father's bonfire (battered and broken but the top half was fine) , mended and stands on the old washing line post
All the slabs in the garden come from skips or 'OH's mates at work'
I also use lemonade bottles as mini-cloches, pop bottles with holes in to water seedlings, cut up ice-cream tubs as labels, old film cases to store dried seed. My sister grows sweetcorn and potatoes in old tyres on the ground...I'm sure that we do lots more...
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Post by Chuckles on Jan 17, 2007 21:33:16 GMT
CPB I can't fault you, woman of my own heart. I LOVE YOUR GAZEBO ;D
Some of our fencing is made from old pallets, OH put a point on them and bingo instant picket fencing.
OH made staging in the GH from bits of left over wood
water-butt is an oil drum
burn-bin is an old Galvanised dust bin.
Most of my slabs in the garden are second hand
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Post by Cheerypeabrain on Jan 19, 2007 5:01:18 GMT
CPB I can't fault you, woman of my own heart. I LOVE YOUR GAZEBO ;D Some of our fencing is made from old pallets, OH put a point on them and bingo instant picket fencing. OH made staging in the GH from bits of left over wood water-butt is an oil drum burn-bin is an old Galvanised dust bin. Most of my slabs in the garden are second hand Aw Chuckles....if only you knew the hysterics we had when the gazebo was taking shape...it's quite big for our small garden, and on more than one occasion I suggested an old bus stop sign and a timetable would fit in with the overall design....but I love it too ! We've had grape vine growing up it (died) abutilion (died) and spanish flag....(didn't die) now it's just got ivy! it's GOOD to get sommat for noffink ay? CPBx |
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Post by Plocket on Jan 19, 2007 8:21:14 GMT
Oooo is there a piccy of the gazebo - it sounds wonderful and I'd like to see it.
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Post by Susie Snowdrop on Jan 19, 2007 11:18:50 GMT
What an excellent idea this thread is ;D Loads of brilliant suggestions....thanks folks  I've been really cheeky . I printed off a list of compostable(?) materials and then gave a copy to my friends and neighbours ;D who then bring the stuff to me and put it in MY compost bin!! Better in there than on some landfill site! |
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Post by Plocket on Jan 19, 2007 11:30:50 GMT
Oh that's a brilliant idea Susie. I just wish I had space in the garden for more composting. That's partly why I wanted the wormery, because last year we got to the stage where we couldn't fit any more stuff into the composter. The rota sieve might encourage me to empty it more often though!  |
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Post by Deleted on Jan 19, 2007 12:01:43 GMT
What an excellent idea this thread is ;D Loads of brilliant suggestions....thanks folks I've been really cheeky . I printed off a list of compostable(?) materials and then gave a copy to my friends and neighbours ;D who then bring the stuff to me and put it in MY compost bin!! Better in there than on some landfill site! Thats an excellant idea Susie!! |
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