Allotment Gardening Advice Help Chat
Growing => Grow Your Own => Topic started by: ladybird on March 10, 2006, 07:53
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Has anyone out there got any other ideas for recycling apart from CDs as bird scarers, and toilet roll tubes for sweet peas etc. I'm sure there must be lots more.
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Plastic bottles as mini cloches
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old windows for constructing cold frames.
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and old pieces of down piping for placing round the top of the leeks to keep them white.
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Great responce so far thanks, keep them coming.
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old bits of carpet cut into circles to put around your brassica bases to protect your roots from root fly
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Shredded paper can go into the compost heap and brown cardboard around the sides to keep the heap warm. The cardboard rots eventually as well.
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my old paper goes on the woodburner, rather me keep warm than the compost bin!!!! lol
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i once seen a bus shelter that someone had turned into a greenhouse
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Hey, I hadn't thought about that one Shaun. A few years back, we saw one of those trolley shelters that you get in the supermarket car park at Colchester Auctions, and we thought, now what on earth would you do with one of those!!!! Similar to a bus shelter, I could have had my greenhouse then!!! darn!!!! lol
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In trays are very handy
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I use a portable filing box to keep seeds in plant by months.
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Before I got into the gardening lark, I threw away about 20 In Trays that I used to keep my cross stitch mags in, but they got too bulky looking, wish I'd kept them now, but I was trying to downsize!!!!
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Before I got into the gardening lark, I threw away about 20 In Trays that I used to keep my cross stitch mags in, but they got too bulky looking, wish I'd kept them now, but I was trying to downsize!!!!
Don't worry - when we moved from England to the Isle of Man, the new house had no garden. Massive concreted terrace areas with lots of pots but no ground.
So I left behind...
Greenhouse, heated propogator (built myself with thermostat), four trays with plastic tops, loads of pots, trays etc, electric shredder and lawn mower (given to next door) hedge cutter (given to father in law) plus loads of other things that you don't miss until you need them.
Such is life.
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Oh John!!!! If only we could see into the future eh? well. perhaps not!!! LOL
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Oh John!!!! If only we could see into the future eh? well. perhaps not!!! LOL
As a big science fiction fan, that idea has been dealt with in lots of stories. In the Dune books, the late Frank Herbert suggested that Paul Atreides and later his son Leto could see the future. Because of this ability, they lost choice and could only follow a path already laid down. Scary thought!
Would be handy to know if we're going to have a good summer though. :)
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I use copper wire fron old electric cable stapled along the top of raised beds to stop slugs, cheap & efficient!. :idea:
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That put us back on topic! Clever one :)
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1-litre plastic pop bottles
drill hole CENTRAL in base
cut eg 5 vertical slits equally spaced around main body of bottle, plus a small cut at each end at right angles like square bracket ] all facing same way
fold and crease each flap thus produced outwards so the thing looks like a sort of turbine
stick narrow enough cane through hole so it rests on the inside of bottle cap
plant in ground
spins in wind and provides hours of innocent fun for the easily amused, such as myself- purportedly scares birds too though I have never actually watched one fleeing from the device
dave
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i use old fishing floats as dibbers and prickers.
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Scatter a few carpet tiles on your plot. Slugs shelter under them. All you have to do is turn them over and dispose of the slimy things.
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Greengrocers provide lots of useful items for the gardener. Net bags, plastic trays and polystyrene boxes.
Net bags, apart from being used to store your onions can be used to protect small areaa from the ravages of birds.
Plastic trays are just the right size to accomodate 12 small flowerpots. The ones used for tomatoes are best.
The polystyrene boxes are perfect for winter storage of bulbs and similar roots.
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Again, plastic bottles! we get mole crickets here in Spain that attack plant roots, so I plant everything with a plastic collar! I also sink the top half of a plastic bottle next to thirsty plants! OOOoohohhh and yoghurt pots for planting seeds!! :tongue2:
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Where abouts in Spain are you? My wife fancies moving to Extra Madura How do you cope with the climate - what gows well, what doesn't - don't worry, a 5,000 word essay will do! :)
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HI John!! I live near Granada, at the foot of the Alpujarra mountains there's a town called Orgiva that's where I am! I love it here, colder in the winter than the coast but it's nice to feel the seasons, very hot in the summer (mid 30's). No problem here growing toms (I've got 7 varieites now flowering) peppers, aubergines, okra waiting to go in! we've got about 70 orange trees and some olive trees! I used to live on the coast it's my second growing year here, I really love it!!! I've never been to Extra madura but have heard it's beautiful.
All the best
Biscombe
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Sorry John I missed the 'what dosent grow part of the question' The only thing thats a pain is lettuce. The best time to eat lettuce is in the summer!! and it bolts like crazy then!!! I've bought lots of different varieties of slow bolting lettuce this year! apart from that no problems!
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Sorry John forgot to mention thanks for such a great forum! PS where in Nantwich are you, I used to live on a narrowboat before I moved to Spain 8 years ago! Used to spend a few weeks at the flashes in Middlewich! lovely round there!
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At risk of revealing the fact that I've not paid enough attention to some of this site here :oops:
Whats bolting?
I'm very jealous that you've got oranges and olives btw.
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It's when your plot is on a site with no lavs.
It's also when plants unexpectedly flower and you can't eat them - like lettuces. I think this is caused by drought.
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It's when your plot is on a site with no lavs.
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Hysterical :tongue2:
And don't drink the brown liquid in the milk bottle on the shed!
Biscombe - we're in Wiststaton which is on the edge of Crewe before the Middlewich road. Closer to Nantwich than Crewe.
You're in a lovely area - we often stay in Torrox, one of those 'white villages' near the coast - detail at Spanish Holidays Website (http://www.spanish-hols.com/) but it doesn't look as if we're going away this year as our cat needs too much medical help to leave him for the neighbour to look after.
I've seen a lot of the agriculture over there - pretty ugly plastic tents though.
Why not post a few pictures for us of your garden?
Cheers
John
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Has anyone out there got any other ideas for recycling apart from CDs as bird scarers, and toilet roll tubes for sweet peas etc. I'm sure there must be lots more.
Meat containers ie Mince, chicken breast packets.
Drill some holes in thebottom, and use them for seedling trays
Phil
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We ´recycle´ the water at the kitchen sink.... it takes 5 litres until it starts to run even warm, so we have water bottles ready to fill up with the cold water when washing up and then use them to carry the water upstairs to the patio.
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I try to remember to re-use the kitchen sink water. everytime I rinse a cup or glass or wash my hands, I catch the water in the washing up bowl, then take it out and use it in my patio pots.
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Not exactly re-cycling but a money saver anyway. Home made netting pegs, get a large coil of galvanised fencing wire (about £3-50) cut it into 9 inch lengths bend into the shape of a tent peg cheap netting pegs
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10l florists buckets - I'm hoping they'll help me produce some aubergines this year (fourth year lucky)...
Blue mushroom trays - line with paper and fill with compost to produce a seed tray
500ml/380ml plastic drinks bottles - great for topping canes to reduce the risk of poking your eyes out
Wood out of skips on business parks/industrial estates or from expanding Tesco stores or make friends with your local shop-fitting business - great for edging fixed beds, making giant compost bins or weighing down crop covers
Bricks/paving tiles from skips - useful for weighing down crop covers
Lengths of old water pipe - cut to 1.8m lengths, stick a bamboo cane up each end to anchor to the ground and create your own customised cloche structure for covering with fleece, netting etc.
Empty multi-purpose compost bags - great for transporting garden waste/ guinea pig hutch waste from home to allotment compost bins
Shop carrier bags for transporting harvested veg from allotment plot to kitchen
Our borough council every now and again off load redundant wheely bins which can be used as water butts (if they haven't had their bottoms cut off) or compost bins (if they have)
One I'm going to try later this year is to cut my leaky redundant water butt in half lengthways, fill the two halves with compost and create a couple of strawberry beds, finding some sort of structure to raise them off the ground with
And anything of organic origin can be recycled in the compost bin...
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How about a fairy liquid bottle washed out, the bottom cut off, filled with water and up ended in to your tomato pots to drip feed them - - - - thanks Mum :lol:
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I've done that with plastic 2 litre lemonade bottles, just making a small hole in the lid so the water doesn't come out too quickly, but with 117 tomato plants, I don't have enough pop bottles to go round!!!! lol
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Meat and fruit containers
Use them (especially the larger ones) as covers for seed trays like mini propogators.
Also, certain types of biscuits from Waitrose come in brown 3-hole dividers 50mm deep. Drill some holes in the bottom for drainage - they make excellent 'trays' for potting on seedlings, especially to sell for fund raising. (People often return the pots and things anyway).
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Hello there, I find the little actimel (or similar) type of yoghurt health drinks make ideal cane tops. I'll also give your neighbours the impression that you are on a health kick.
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Clear plastic grape bags; the ones with the pattern of slits up the side; currently filled with grow bag compost and sprouting peas, hung up like hanging baskets.
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I bought one of those plastic greenhouses to store my tools in while I built my shed.......of course it was a few days before the gales and it self distructed...but the top poles and upper sides made great supports for a cloche for my marrows, the side poles with the plastic corner pieces have become my brassica cover supporting the nets and at the end of this summer I am going to build a wooden frame and re-use the cover on a stronger frame.
And also on the subject of re-cycling.......I am also one of those people who gave away all my gardening stuff when I moved to a bungalow with no garden ! !
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Beanzie Posted: Tue Jun 20, 2006 11:52 am Post subject:
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Hello there, I find the little actimel (or similar) type of yoghurt health drinks make ideal cane tops. I'll also give your neighbours the impression that you are on a health kick.
e
What a cracking idea you could also use the small plastic balls used in kid's play areas You can pick them up dead cheap on car boots cost me a quid for a hundred complete with zip-up bag