The Great 'Re-use from the house into the garden' Hunt

MSE_Martin

How to be environmentally friendly and a MoneySaver

With the urgent need to think carefully about the planet's resources, recycling isn't necessarily the only environmentally friendly behaviour to consider; in fact finding a second use for things is just as good for the planet AND good for the pocket too.

This week's hunt is for ideas of things from the house that can be given a second life in the garden; whether it's banana skins wrapped around roses to make them grow, or old scissors as sheer.

So please add your ideas and list:

• What the item is
• It's second use in the garden
• How much you'd save by not buying an alternative garden item of similar function

Martin

Cacran

Ladies tights. Cut off the legs and stuff with compost. Line a wire or plastic hanging type planter with rows of them, fill the centre with ordinary compost. You can easily make holes in them to plant things and the compost is retained without the need for special liners or moss. You save both the money that you could have spent on liners plus the fact that the compost does not wash away so cost of that is saved too.

JBEILBY

Last year we had to have our toilet replaced so I asked our plumber to try and remove the toilet bowl intact. He did and I now have a lovely garden planter for summer bedding and winter flowering pansies.

JanetG

Cacran wrote:

Ladies tights. Cut off the legs and stuff with compost. Line a wire or plastic hanging type planter with rows of them, fill the centre with ordinary compost. You can easily make holes in them to plant things and the compost is retained without the need for special liners or moss. You save both the money that you could have spent on liners plus the fact that the compost does not wash away so cost of that is saved too.

Tights can also be used for storing onions after harvest. Make sure the onions are dry then put one in the leg. Tie a knot then put another onion in, tie a knot......and so on! Fill both legs, then hang up in a shed. When you need to use one of the onions, just cut that section of the tights off (below the knot) and the other onions are still contained safely.


Janet

Deni_zen

Loads of uses for food packaging - seed trays, storage for seeds, mini cloches, labels(cut up used plastic milk bottles), egg cartons into compost or for planting up seedlings, old milk bottles for funnels, scoops or peg baskets, drinks bottles for plant pots.

anniebeetham

Great idea to use old tights to line baskets.
A tight leg (or is it tights leg?) could be made into a plant pouch - fill with compost (own home-made of course) and perhaps some water retaining granules, water well & hang to drain, then poke baby plants through - don't be stingy, if you grow them from seed, they'll have cost pence. They look pretty sparse to begin with but soon cover the whole thing & you won't be able to see the hidden tight leg!
Knee & ankle highs can be cut up for plant ties: browny colours blend in and they're stretchy so they don't 'cut in', (though you'll still need to check if you use them on saplings that will put on a lot of hard growth to see that they don't get strangled)
Ready to click -hope this is OK . . .

ILikeFreebies

Bit of an obvious one, composting! Yes, there is an initial outlay on a compost bin, unless you can scavenge things and build your own. Once you've got one you can compost toilet roll tube (and similar cardboard), snotty tissues, vacuum cleaner contents (depending on what you've sucked up as paperclips and hair grips wouldn't compost too well), vegetable and fruit peelings, paper from shredded bills/receipts/junk mail. If you've got a privately located compost bin you could urinate in it to add nitrogen! :shocked:

Bluesky49

Any chipped bowls / dishes from the kitchen can be re-used as planters.
Cracked or broken old china can be saved until you have enough and used to mosaic plain flower pots to make them special, or even make a super garden table from an old one. Bathroom tile cement / grout is the best to use as it is waterproof.
Plastic pop / water bottles can also be re-used. Cut them in half and use as mini greenhouses over small plants or seedlings, the top half even has a removable top to allow ventilation.
Use old CD's or the free ones that frequently come with magazines tied on strings around the garden to keep birds away from your newly planted vegetables.
Joy

marilyn

I use most of my plastic packaging in the garden/greenhouse. The plastic trays make ideal seed trays. Yoghurt pots and other similar containers make useful growing on pots. Mushroom trays make good drip trays for plantpots. I cant put a price on this saving - we now do not buy any pots, drip trays or seed trays for the greenhouse!
I would really prefer supermarkets to stop using the amount of packaging, but the next best thing is to be able to recycle them.

kate682

1. Old winter gloves - use in the garden, they fit much better than purpose bought gardening gloves.

2. When recycling your post, cut off your address label, amazing the amount of times you need to fill in your name & address on forms, keep a handy amount of these in your purse.

3. Gardening / travel brochures. Cut out the pictures to make your own hand made birthday, celeration cards. Kiddies love this as well.

4. Keep a watch out for those red elastic bands that postmen drop. A quick wash and then they have lots of usage. Closing bags, keeping shoes together etc

cornerclose

If you are replacing a carpet you can use the old one as a weed supressing mulch instead of the usual plastic. This works well around shrubs and trees which are out of sight, and pieces can be put around cabbages etc which also helps keep out cabbage root fly. It won't stop the perennial weeds like ground elder and convolvulus but its great for supressing the annuals, and helps conserve water too.

I've also used old carpet to cover compost which is rotting. It stops the birds pulling it about and again keeps moisture in.