[green_lolly]

I would really love to hear about your ideas or projects where you have reused or repurposed something to give it a second life around the garden or home.  It could give me and hopefully others inspiration and ideas.

For example.  Yesterday I came across some retail ice cream chest freezers waiting for disposal. I got permission to take the sliding glass tops to make cold frame lids.  When I've made them I'll post some pics.

[Norfolkgrey]

Like most people I have a fair few things that have a second life

Bricks and showerwall offcuts edge beds.
Pallet wood gets used for most things hutches, coops, greenhouse work bench etc.
Old plastic drinks cups and yogurt pots become plant pots.
Old video cases used for my seed library
The little one pint milk bottles used as a 2 in 1 scoop funnel for filling pots with compost
Newspaper for pots and mulching beds
Drinks bottles as wind spinners.
Soil pipe used for extracting the juice out of comfrey or nettles
One that seems very popular with people is gutter for growing strawbs.

[Kleftiwallah]

My regular is seed trays from the mushroom containers, with holes burned in the base with a soldering iron,  sometimes there is a clear plastic tray of a similar size for a lid.

Cheers,  Tony.

[Dantheman]

Like most people I have a fair few things that have a second life

Bricks and showerwall offcuts edge beds.
Pallet wood gets used for most things hutches, coops, greenhouse work bench etc.
Old plastic drinks cups and yogurt pots become plant pots.
Old video cases used for my seed library
The little one pint milk bottles used as a 2 in 1 scoop funnel for filling pots with compost
Newspaper for pots and mulching beds
Drinks bottles as wind spinners.
Soil pipe used for extracting the juice out of comfrey or nettles
One that seems very popular with people is gutter for growing strawbs.

Drinks bottles as wind spinners.  Do you mean just on sticks or do you make something more fun?

[oldgrunge]

There's the ubiquitous loo rolls as pot for starting peas, beans etc
Strips of wood painted with left over emulsion for plant labels
Last years raspberry canes for pea sticks

[cadalot]

Drinks bottles as wind spinners.  Do you mean just on sticks or do you make something more fun?

Something like below with bits of cap inside that rattle when they rotate are fun and easy to make

[madcat]

Some more :

Frame tents as brassica cages.  Scaffolding netting for fruit cages (and brassicas).  Pallets for bird boxes and compost heaps and strawberry growers.  All sorts of plastic barrels for water.  Dead wheel barrow now grows carrots.  Plastic boxes from the supermarket - mushroom, meat if deep enough (helped by soldering iron) as seed trays.  Discarded sheep netting as squash fences.  Drinks bottles as water funnels  and deep planters and just on top of canes to rattle at the pigeons and stop eyes getting poked out.  Crisp packets as sparkly pigeon scarers (open out and tie as bow on string at regular intervals.  String like bunting.  They dont like the movement of the sparkly foil coloured inside.  Looks pretty too if you like that sort of thing!)  Lorry tyres for warm herb beds.

Heavens - so many things!  Anything that is heading for the rubbish gets a second creative look!

[Norfolkgrey]

Drinks bottles as wind spinners.  Do you mean just on sticks or do you make something more fun?

They are on sticks, but they are cut in a way they have wings so they spin. The lid is glue to the bottom inside to stop it sliding. I will take a piccy later to help make sense. I just think its nicer than carrier bag trees 

Ok, Cads is so much more glamourous than mine 
Cadalot....................................................how have you done yours? 

[cadalot]

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My modification to Sams instruction at about 7 minutes in is that I use a soldering iron to melt and hold the top and bottom of the body of the bottle together and leave the blades curved. No nasty tape used on my version

I also cut up different coloured bottle tops so they move and pop them inside as I also install the wire after welding the body closed. The bits rattle as the windmill rotates.

[Norfolkgrey]

TY Cad. Guess what I am doing this weekend     

Just made one and it has really made my day. Simple things for simple minds. TY,TY,TY 

[green_lolly]

I'm loving all these ideas. Thank you. Keep them coming.

I wondered why a lot of the other plots have plastic bottles on canes. I just thought they were being super cautious about being poked in the eye.

I'm going to have a go at the wind spinners as well and the crisp packet bird scarers - good excuse to eat crisps too 😀

[GrannieAnnie]

I put plastic bottles on canes to help scare off the moles that keep digging up my garden.  The vibration made by the wind scares them off!

[gypsy]

Tired trampoline safety net used to net brassicas

[Steveharford]

Blank CD's hanging on string from an angled stick. Swings around like a whirling dervish and is very flashy. It also reflects a beam like a spotlight onto the ground which darts about as it swings.  Keeping the pigeons away so far.          I'm liking the idea of the wind spinner though.

[RJR_38]

The wind spinners look fun! I'm going to have a go soon.

My flower bed area has an old clay pot chimney, wheelbarrow and strange metal pots sign rusted out bottoms I found when clearing the plot. Having no bottom at all is much better as it allows plants roots to go deeper into the 'real' soil.

I use drinks cans on the ends of my sticks (rattly and shiny!) as well as the usual debris netting etc.

The 4 pint milk bottles make excellent cloches for sweetcorn or other small plants as you can put the canes down the handles to keep them secured. I got this idea from someone on here last year.

I've recycled barrels that held olives I got cheap on ebay into planters and my beds are edged in bricks/logs found on the plot