Recyling for garden use ...

[totp]

Have you tried using old drink bottles (eg coke bottles)for raising seed. I use anything from 1.5 litres up as the smaller ones aren't so good. what you do is cut the bottle into 3 parts. the bottom section should be about 3 inches high and the top should be cut where the flutes part finishes. The seeds are planted in the bottom section and the top section is used as a lid. I find it much easier than putting plastic bags over plant pots. You can unscrew the lid to add water / check progress and it stays humid inside. The middle section can then be used to protect the seedlings from slugs once they are in the ground.

[Weeterrier]

Good thinking

[Shrubrose]

totp said:

Have you tried using old drink bottles (eg coke bottles)for raising seed. I use anything from 1.5 litres up as the smaller ones aren't so good. what you do is cut the bottle into 3 parts. the bottom section should be about 3 inches high and the top should be cut where the flutes part finishes. The seeds are planted in the bottom section and the top section is used as a lid. I find it much easier than putting plastic bags over plant pots. You can unscrew the lid to add water / check progress and it stays humid inside. The middle section can then be used to protect the seedlings from slugs once they are in the ground.

What a clever idea. Thanks for posting it. :

[Barbara]

what a clever idea, and welcome to you totp. is that top of the pops?

[Deleted]

that is a fab idea except we never have fizzy drinks.
i will have to try and find someone else to donate some to me.
xxxx

[Chuckles]

Nice one Totp hadn't thought about using the middles for protection. I've used the tops and bases over plastic pots before.

[Cheerypeabrain]

well helloooo CBB

I use the big 2 litre plastic pop bottles as little cloches . Just cut off the bottom. they fit right over a 3" pot or sit on the rim of a 5" one. Also use these in the spring to protect tiny plants from the slimy foe...

[Chuckles]

Hi CPB, did you ever do anything with that metal fencing OH aquired recycled ;D

I've done some terrible recycling recently folks, well I'm still not sure wether it's terrible or not, I did think so to start with but the more I thought about it the more I'm thinking what an intuative idea. Don't know if I dare share it with you

Ok I'll tell you, well I'll sort of tell you ;D If I said I'd found a new type of cane topper thats quite decorative would you know what it was. Ok, another clue..... Once they are empty and dry they fit nicely on top of a cane. Another clue.....they are the home of one of the things we curse in the garden. Another clue......they eat blue bits as well as new shoots and leave a slimey mess behind them.

have you guessed

[Deleted]

I save all the trays that mushrooms and some fruit and veg come in i also save all my yoghurt pots etc to use as seed trays.
Like the idea about the bottles, ive been saving all my bottles for cane caps, but may use them for this instead.

Chuckles are you using snail shells, if so thats a great idea ;D

[Chuckles]

You got it Karen, spot on ;D

[Babyswan]

yeah, totp has a good idea there. Like the use of the top instead of a plastic bag, which I've always thought was messy. never tried it, but the bottle sounds good.

[Dutchy]

Chuckles, kill them and then make them work for you.
Boy you are a cruel person, so no peacefull and quiet afterlife with fresh heavenly lettuce for your snails then.

[Ladygardener]

some really good tips on here thanks to you all

[Barbara]

i managed to get 1 of those big sand bags from a builders yard for compost, as well as my bin,
it's filling up nicely as i've just cut all the leaves from my iris, and cut back my perennial sweet peas, i've dug up my acidenthra, and cut the leaves off that as well,
do you know if they need to come out for winter, or will they survive with a heap of compost on them, as i've loads more to come out.

[Chuckles]

Nice one Barbara, I've got one of those too curtesy of OH, big aren't they. Not got room to use it for compo though it's folded up in the shed waiting for me to find it a purpose in life ;D

Had 51 of those 6 section platic tray given to me yesterday, the ones you get bedding in. The place were I used to work had all the tubs done yesterday and an eagle eyed friend who just happens to deal with the site maintenance and all that stuff saved a few for me. 51 they'll last me a few years ;D Hope to get some bigger plastic pots if they do any shrub planting. It's not always what you know but who you know

[borderbabe]

I've just had a lucky find! Next door have cut down a couple of trees and chipped all the branches - guess who's got about a dozen bags of mulch!! That'll do nicely with my own apple tree prunings shortly. The garden and lottie will be well mulched this autumn and next spring! ;D

[Shrubrose]

Lucky you snowowl. Could do with folks like that!

[Babyswan]

Barbara, I have not one, but TWO of those big sacks. I used it in May when I had a major hack back of my hedge. It was leaning too much. I was able to bundle it into the back of a Micra and bring it to the local 'Bring Centre' that takes green waste. The lad next door used on as a temporary skip.

There is a lad in the neighbourhood that is an arboreturist (?) and has truck loads of wood chip. Well I got him to dump a load on some public ground near where I live last week. I spent an hour on Sunday, Monday and Wednesday spreading it amongst the bedding plants. Ahh, the smell! I spread it about 4" to 6" deep.

I asked him to drop another load, so fingers crossed.

And the other night I 'acquired' a 14' bannister rail from a skip nearby. It looks like one of those lances from The Tudors!!!

We had some intruders in the back garden on Monday, it seems, so I have to roll out some barbed wire along the fence to the neighbour on one side. Bramble cuttings will go along the wrecked head on the other, plus I've to rustle up a door to replace a barrier that the widow that side had broken on her. Tch.

Chuckles, I have loads of those 6 unit trays to get rid off. You can have them any time!

[Chuckles]

babyswan2 said:

Chuckles, I have loads of those 6 unit trays to get rid off. You can have them any time!

Thanks for the offer BS my mate bought me 51 of them and I had a few already, but thanks again for the offer

They fit perfectly in some of the trays you get stuff from the supermarket in, the Chicken trays that are sort of shaped off at one end are the best, ready made area to water into

[Deleted]

A friend is having a new conservatory built and has said i can have all the old glass panels, im going to use them to make cold frames.

[Chuckles]

Ooooooh nice one Karen ;D

I saved our old French Doors a couple of years ago in the hope I could may be use them for a cold frame or similar. OH put them up the garden under sufference and when I went to look at them a while back to see what I could do with them they were that heavy I can hardly move one. Mmmmm I still have to pluck up the courage to ask him to get rid of them (grovelgrovelsmilie)

Hope the conservatory works well for you, great bit of recycling, keep us posted

[Ladygardener]

Oh lucky you Karenwl

[Dutchy]

Karen that is good luck indeed
Chuck can't you use those doors for something else?

[Chuckles]

Na the doors are really to heavy for me to handle Dutchy, to move them I have to walk them, can't pick them up. Pity really but at least I tried to use them.

I made OH screeeeeach to a halt down a back lane on Saturday. I spotted someone had dumped some things in a gateway, spotted 2 bright yellow plastic storage boxes. We reversed up and I checked them over, unfortunately the bottoms were broken out of them. I even did a bit of quick thinking and considered if I could make them maybe into a wormery by maybe fixing wire mesh in the base.

Guess someone had had a shed clear out by the looks, there was also an electric lawn mower, a hedge trimmer, some old broken buckets, loads of empty bags etc etc. Pity they didn;t go to the local tip which is only about 2 miles away

Nothing for Chuckles on this occasion

[Chuckles]

Not sure if this is going to work but I was talking to a friend yesterday about sowing seeds and popping them in a bag until they germinate and I had a Chuckles moment

I have a few of those opaque plastic Chinese takeaway cartons hanging about and thought I'd try them instead of the poly bag. So..............damp kitchen roll folded in the bottom, seeds placed on top, lid on, placed on warm shelf near heater........we'll see what happens

[Dutchy]

;D They will grow but then you have to pot them up......
Found any container that will do for them?
Chinese take away Sateh holders? The plastic cup variety?
You can bung those in the dishwasher ( not the hottest program) and they come out fine, just need some holes in the bottom.

[Shrubrose]

Tried some GU puds yesterday (lovely by the way!). They're little glass pots with strong plastic lids. Now I'm wondering if the lids would do for covers for three inch pots? Going to give it a try ;D

[Dutchy]

On a different theme.
One old discarded plank of a garden fence can be used to make one lovely new birdbox.
Simple I know.

[Shrubrose]

Simple is usually good Dutchy, if it works and it obviously did. I like 'simple' and I love recycling ;D

[Chuckles]

You can't beat saving bits of wood Dutchy, they come in handy for allsorts of things Shrub I've saved the last 6 GU lids and they sit nicely on top, not tight but I'm sure they'll do the job.

I bought 6 packs of those Basket U Grow packs of hanging basket plants last week from Wilkos and have just re used them to sow Tomato seeds in. They have a four section plastic plug bit and that sits in water retaining gel, the lids can be folded over one another and held down with an elastic band. Once germinated I will have the lids open and staple them together like they were when I bought them ;D They are currently sat in the shelf above the heater in the kitchen keeping nice and warm