So, what can we recycle from our houses to use on the
lottie?
Here's one for starters...
Eggtrays - for chitting potatoes.
What do other use and for what??
Debs :D
Well as a rabid scavenger and an enuthusistic recycler I love to recyle everything. As I haven't planted anything yet I haven't used any thing on the lottie. But a few suggestions.
Tin cans on string as a bird scarer. Jars in the shed for storage. Plastic bottles used as watering funnels.
TR
plastic bottles for mini cloches, CD's for bird scarers
Newspaper for paper seed pots. Cardboard boxes for holding the paper pots instead of buying seed trays. Tin (baked bean) cans for growing herbs in.
Old pallets for compost heap, and wood for potting table, shelter, seat etc.
Corks and coke cans to put over the ends of canes to stop you poking your eyes eye when weeding.
Jerry
yoghurt pots, food packaging trays for seed sowing. wooden tray containg 'smellies' christmas pressie for sowing salads under glass.
loo rolls for sweet peas, various wood for raised beds.
Flattened cardboard boxes & newspaper as a mulch, with grass clippings on top. I've a florescent light cover I'm going to try as a cloche. Coppiced* poles for beans peas &c. Tights and stockings for tree ties &c. kitched knives for weeding (best not to tell the other half -she's fed up enough going out bare legged ;D)
Jeremy
*That's coppiced as in I should have cut the hedge last year and the next door neighbour should have done his the last 5 years.
Now I know what to collect ;D.
I have used the large margarine tubs (or similar container with lid when testing seed viability.
Debs :)
the big cardboard boxes that fridges and ovens come in are great instant compost bins - just fill them up and the cardboard will insulate and rot down at the same time. The nets oranges etc come in are good for storing onions if you can't be faffed with all that plaitting.
I do lots of those, plus use disposable cups from the water cooler (collected from work) as little plant pots. And mushroom punnets to stand pots in to hold water at the bottom.
I collect string and elastic bands whenever I find them lying around for use in the garden.
Slabs/large stones/bricks dug up are used for paths/edging. long woody prunings from the buddleia for plant supports.
Clear plastic bags from the supermarket or from round magazines make good propagators.
Used silver foil put on the side of the seedlings furthest from the window to reflect more light onto them
etc. Pretty much the only thing I've bought for my garden are plants and seeds!
another thought- i save old large compost bags and use them for planting 'spuds in a bag'. worked well last year with 'desiree'.
old christmas trees- i save the main 'trunk' to use when growing stuff upwards.
always on the lookout for suitable looking 'pea sticks'- neighbours usual severe garden prunings are a good source ;).
Aha! I missed the panty legs (or do you call them ladies stockings?), cut rings from the legs, cut the rings open and voila, tomato plant ties.
Tut, you all beat me to it!
Egg trays for chitting, old tea trays for holding seed trays and pots, small pop bottles as cane/eye protectors, large pop bottles as mini cloches, net curtains as anti-butterfly net, tree prunings as peasticks, pastic carrier bags tied to canes as bird scarers, cd's as bird scarers (altho they attracted the magpies and didn't scare them at all!), scrap wood for various structures, all green kitchen waste recycled into the compost heap, shredded newspapers and junk mail as mulch, kids plastic play tent poles to form arches over strawbs to support the netting, frame tent recycled into fruit cage, loo/kitchen roll tubes as seed pots, plastic milk bottles cut up into labels, clear pastic supermarket veg/fruit trays make seed tray 'cloches', old unused and unwanted wheelie bin makes a huge waterbutt whilst a smaller unused dustbin makes a smaller waterbutt. ;D
Yogurt and cream pots cut up for labels.
Egg boxes and loo rolls torn up and put on the compost heap.
Veg containers from the supermarket (ie mushrooms etc) saved for next picking season.
Sarah
Found lots from the above that I do plus many that I'll be trying in future.
What an inventive bunch we allotmenteers are
Plottie
;D :) ;D :) ;D :) ;D :) ;D :)
My other half repaired an old council cement mixer to use as a compost mixer (and cement mixer for the reclaimed greenhouse base that will shortly be under construction).
The water pump from our dead dishwasher got recycled for pumping water from the bottom of the allotment to the top.
He used window-holes (the wooden frames/templates that builders build windows and doors around) as ready made raised beds.
I'm smaller scale with pop bottles and marg-tubs...
Instead of buying an irrigation system for watering my pumpkins I made my own from scraps of hose pipes found in skips etc and glued together valve type bottle tops from my lads dinner time drinks bottles, it worked a treat and cost nowt but a bit of time. ;D
We had our loft converted and our roof replaced at the end of last year ( >:( what a hellish experience that was! Worth it though ;D) so I managed to take all the supporting beams fom the ceilings that they removed and I hope to be using them for the edges of raised beds!
I've also recycled the other way around. As I was clearing the lottie back in August, I found a gorgeous galvanised trough hidden in the six foot celery. It's now in my garden, growing peppermint for me to make tea from. Very smart! ;)
::) we have got two old baths, not very pretty, but as there is no water on site, every drop we can collect is precious. We also thought about growing strawberries in them to keep the slugs away
I noticed yesterday a house opposite us were having their windows done, so over I hopped to relieve the fitters of the old windows! I have lots of old flatpack bedroom furnature in the loft that were there when we moved in, so plans for coldframes in my garden. Although I have no idea where I'm going to put them as the garden is north facing, and tiny, and has small children in it (well only when they're naughty!) and has stuff in it already. Its looking like the middle of the 'lawn' (small patch of grass in the middle) is the only space.......I'll think of something!
And another idea from a 'seasoned' fellow allotmenteer...
An onion bag filled with horse manure and suspended in a water
butt - makes a nice feed for leeks etc...
Debs ;)