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Acquiring equipment for gardening can be expensive, but it doesn’t have to be. We’ve put together a list of items you can reuse and recycle in your garden.
Most of us care for the environment and recycle what we can. However, there are so many ways to repurpose otherwise useless junk in your garden.
In this video we identify common household items which can be reused and demonstrate how to adapt them to benefit your plants.
If you love growing your own food, why not take a look at our online Garden Planner which is available from several major websites and seed suppliers:
http://www.GrowVeg.com
http://gardenplanner.motherearthnews.com
http://gardenplanner.almanac.com
and many more…
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48 Comments
Excellent video! So many great ideas, many I had never considered. Cheers!
omg
this is amazing
I re-use pallets, corrugated tin, cardboard, old windows, old wood — so much stuff.
Awesome ideas! I think I'll be looking around the yard and garage for possible planter candidates!
I recycle discarded carpet (1) to cover beds in the winter to hold down the mulch while letting the rain in and protecting the soil from freezing. (2) as soil cover between melon and squash/pumpkin plants, suppresses weeds and keeps the fruit off the dirt..(3) as pathways in my greenhouse (4) to lay on when working on my tractor. (5) as insulation for the north side of the greenhouse with the padding for this one. can be rolled up for ventilation on sunny days.
I recently learned that plastic is a endocrine distruptor and it was recommended to remove all things plastic. Even though these are very creative ideas for growing food, I question if it is healthy, growing food in plastic containers and when the sun warms them, they will leach their chemicals. Example: it is not recommended to drink water that comes from plastic bottles. During transportation or sitting in front of the store, with sunlight hitting them, they leach their chemicals in the water etc. Do a Google search to find out more about the harmful chemical that plastic emits.
I cut up old mini-blind vinyl slats to make plant markers. I make one end pointed and use a permanent marker to write the plant name on it
If I found out someone had fed me potatoes grown in car tyres I would punch their face in
I'm so happy to have your videos to learn from👍🏻
I love using old boots as funky planters for marigolds (though I certainly wouldn't grow any food crops in them). As far as plastics, reused containers marked #2 (such as gallon water jugs) and #5 plastics (i.e. some yogurt containers and most commercial pots) are your best bet for safer plastics to reuse in the garden as other types may leach BPAs and other harmful chemicals.
Thanks!
I recycle old commercial tomato cages by removing the top, wrapping the shorter cage with chicken wire and placing around plants that need protecting (or for identifying perennial plants when they have no leaves). Place plastic sheeting over the structure when temperature control or protection from egg-laying bugs is needed.
I use old nylon tights or t-shirts cut into strips for tying plants to trellises or stakes. They are elastic enough not to damage the plant. Some clear desert pots I got are just the perfect size to cover 3in pots with seedlings in them.
I love the tire idea for potatoes!
To use treated wood, line with plastic.
Really inspiring ❤
Fantastic and realistic ideas! Thanks!
What is the name of plant which is growing in water ?
I love this channel. I've used a few of the ideas and they've worked perfectly.
My mum used to use old butler sinks. She even used a toilet (cleaned, of course!) that she found in a skip up the road from us. I remember a pair of old welly boots were used at one point, too.
Instead of the flower pots on the cane supports, I use empty plastic bottles. My favourites are lemon juice bottles (not lemonade), and the ones which hold the individual servings of yogurt type drinks, but I guess any will do. I find that flowerpots and other wide necked containers often lift off the cane in high winds (which we get a lot of).
Thank you! I love the video.
You optimally want to be using biodegradable materials, but the problem with paper (toilet paper roll centers, etc.) is that like any untreated wood, it will mold.
I use old builders sacks, the sort sand and clippings are delivered, as compost bins. Filled to the top, they contain more than a cubic metre and I put in a few worms to populate the bag as they can’t move in and out.
Thanks mate! I'm going to use a big pine chair my stepdad made , its rather large, so the seat will convert to a nice veggie garden, can't wait!
Great as always
Old freezer baskets are great for herbaceous plant supports ,turned upside down you won't see them when the plant grows
I upcycle HDPE supermarket 2l milk bottles as hanging 'baskets'… the handle will slide onto a short strip of baton screwed onto a fencepost so I cut off the front upper part. 2 or 3 on each side of the baton mount-point to balance. My fence posts have a fair few on them with my strawbs and tumbling toms.
I use lots of stray sticks, poles and discarded fencing for trellising. I recycle my cardboard for sheet mulching, too. Overturned plant pots provide great protection for plants hardening off. I also like to use plastic bottles for drip irrigating tomatoes and peppers. Found pallets, milk crates, and tires are frequently repurposed in my garden as well.
The Wife lol.
I make my plant markers with old cottage cheese and yougurt containers, since China no longer recycles for the US., we try to not buy one serving size. We all must make a difference and stop purchasing plastic. We made raised beds out of old fruit crates, old commercial mixing bowls, and hollowed out tree trunks, old army boots for suculants, its fund to repurpose interesting garden items that personalize and are inexpensive. Ive even planted in an old purse.
I'm trying potatoes in cardboard boxes this year. Also thinking of trying frozen blueberry plastic bags for potted plants.
Old scaffold boards make superb raised beds and they last for years and years. Companies can only use them for a short while under Health and Safety laws.
Amazing ideas. I will try the individual shade house using the plastic bottles.
Some great ideas. Thanks!
My Grandpa used an old toilet as a gardening container. He used whatever he felt would work. Off the garden subject but he made a portable bar out of an old TV!
I have some old corrugated plastic roofing/siding that I am thinking about making a 4'x4' (1.25 meter by 1.25 meter) compost pile with for my chickens.
The chickens will eat the older fruits and veggies while helping with the compost by pooping on it.
Then you rotate the pile the next week and let the chickens have at the bugs while you start your next pile. 🙂 (rotating every week so the compost doesn't get moldy)
Great, cheap, chicken feed AND fresh compost for the garden after 5 weeks.
Im making some garden planters on legs out of old window frames I found in the street at the moment. The frames are made from very good quality hardwood so they will be perfect. I also found a drainpipe in the skip – gonna cut that lengthways down the middle to make two long planting 'gutters' for salad/herbs and strawberrries that can send their runners along them. I will attach these to the our wooden fence.
We have used our old fridge freezer to grow salad crops in , we removed the gas bottle and doors la it on its back and drilled holes, its brilliant
Aren't old tyres and some plastics toxic?
I use an over-the-door coat hanger (3 hooks) to hang my trellises, in the off-season, to keep them up off the ground.
I use old beehive boxes as instant raised beds, and my son's kiddie pool and sandbox became strawberry beds, which doubled as an incentive for him to help me in the garden. He saw those beds as "his" gardens. I used his climbing toy and the monkey bars as trellises for the heavier fruited vines, such as pumpkin and butternut squash. Just because my children grew up doesn't mean those items are good-for-nothing.
Excellent ideas, Thanks! I
hate things going to waste.
Love that we can save money and the earth at the save time win, win😀
Awesome tips 🙏🏼💫😍✨
Infinite Thanks and Blessings 🐳🌺🙏🏼
Fantastic ideas thankyou🎅🤗🦘🦘🦘
You gave me soooo many ideas! I absolutely love your channel!
I use my old mailbox to hold my snips, extra gloves, and hand tools I propped it on a post and it keeps my things dry when it rains. I make plant markers from old window blinds. You can get a hundred or more from one blind. I often slit the slats down the middle to get more from them.
Tops such as those from washing-up liquid bottles, cooking lemon or lime juice bottles and their inner portion control bit, and small plastic tubes such as vitamin containers or sherbert dabs, etc make great caps for rods and poles. The brighter the better, so you can see them and avoid accidents, and retrieve them at the end of the season. A boxful of them means one will usually fit whatever pole or cane size you use.
Fantastic recycling ideas