[DeadlyNightshade]

I rummaged round our yard at the weekend and got a lot of things, that might be of interest to other ones:

nearly every farmer has so called round bale silage, which is wrapped in quite strong pitch black plastic.... and the farmer has difficulties to get rid of it, hence would be very happy to supply weed control fabric for free


same story with netting which keeps the bales tight together, I use it for peas, but I suppose there are hundreds of other ways of utilizing it (cover fruit trees etc)

baler/ binder twine is spare on alot of farms as well, mine is used for supporting climbing beans (instead of poles) and to tie everything and anything

I'm sure there's plenty more of use (broken buckets that are thrown away can be used as planters etc)


Bell

[dereklane]

Thanks for the tips - I've never seen the netting on silage but I'll keep an eye out next time I'm roaming.

cheers,

Derek

[DeadlyNightshade]

I've seen another idea today on a farm:

the farmer/ gardener used old tyres filled with a manure/ soil mixture for growing potatoes.
You probably could even make a real planter/ barrel out of that by putting tyres on top as required

[Trillium]

Over here the filled tires are more popular for growing toms and peppers.

[Porffor]

could also get bail twine from any horse yard.. they'd be happy to keep it i'm sure! We keep horses and always had a bag of it by the end of a year! Feed bags are also something you gather when have horses stabled, either paper (ideal for storing veggies) or stronger webbed type.

Mine are now living solely from the ground (and a bit of hay in the winter).

[van connick]

lol......we never get rid of bale twine....it is soooo useful......tying up things, keeping hurdles together etc etc....we even use it on the odd occassion as a dog lead, if we have to move dogs either to someones porperty or even the vets......lol...we have stacks of it, but you can guarantee by the spring there is hardly any left over.....as we have used most of it over the winter.....

feed bags are also used to carry logs for the fire.....manageable size....i also use one or two if i need to have a fire about the place, little bit of hay, feed bag then twigs etc gets a good heart in it.

other ones are filled with rotted manure ready for people to take away.....thru the winter we get loads, at least 30 a week so there are plenty here....lol...

[Miller]

We throw the paper feed bags from our horses but the plastic bale bags from shavings and baled feeds we use to muck out into and for garden waste and lining planters (which my OH makes from wood we buy from a cheaper woodyard near us) - still have loads of spares though and baler twine!