An Improvised Garden

There are several reasons why I get into recycling and re-purposing. During my childhood, going to the shops was not the accessible, varied option it is in my life now, so re-using things and improvising from the available resources were how we got along. It was more about make do and mend than saving the planet, but then aren't these merely reasons for the same practices?  I often find myself using something simply because I can see it has another use in it before it might be consigned to the bin or else because  I need something and don't want to wait until I can get out to buy it or have it delivered. All makes for a little improvisation especially in the garden.

 We don't have greenhouse, poly-tunnel nor even  a cold frame so most seeds are raised on sunny window sills. But a home office clear out yielded a lot of floppy disk boxes which looked destined for the tip as nobody, not even charity shops or  Jamie's would welcome them.  I decided to see if they would work as seed propagators.   It saved having to cover the pots with polythene bags or cling film and of course,  they are completely re-usable.   It is so much easier to check on the seedlings' progress and add water. Five days after planting seed, the rocket looked like this - could this rapid take-off be why it is called rocket!

 We have fixed a length of guttering  to the back wall of the shed  to make a useful  pot rack.

 

 Sarah Raven  also suggests using guttering to raise seedlings so that they can be transferred to the rows in the vegetable bed with minimal disturbance.

A length of plastic down-pipe with a sock over the lower end, is what we call our 'Patent Pear Picker', helping us to reach the upper branches, dislodge the fruit which then slides down and into the sock. In fact it is used for other fruit; apples and plums as well provided they can fit inside the pipe - otherwise retrieving the fruit unbruised relies pretty heavily on the juggling skills of the operator.

Other re-uses include legs of tights as plant ties, lollipop sticks as plant labels and the usual pressing of yogurt pots into service as plant pots. This month's Country Living magazine suggests using old cabinet drawers as mini-raised beds but I have some old decking planks that I am planning to use to make a not-so-mini raised bed.

And of course in a previous post, Heart's Ease, I mentioned what happens to chipped cups in my garden.

 

Alys Fowler has even more ideas in The Thrifty Gardener  but enough for now! The backlash of all this re-using is that nagging feeling when you review your clutter that at sometime in the future it just 'might come in handy..'