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Post by Alan on Jan 6, 2010 21:32:53 GMT -5
wow, I hadn't heard that one moonlilly, that's pretty darn cool though!
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Post by sandbar on Jan 8, 2010 1:20:08 GMT -5
I love the Red Green show.
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Post by rockguy on Jan 8, 2010 8:08:57 GMT -5
Gutter-nests sounds handy anyway. I'm a Redgreen fan too, always got my roll of duct tape. I think you NEED at least a small pile of junk to recycle into stuff. Have you priced just buying a few bolts/nuts/washers lately?
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Post by Alan on Jan 10, 2010 20:09:58 GMT -5
I absolutely love Red Green, be proud Canadians, you got one up on us US red necks. Anyhow, I second the advice here of raiding old farm junk piles, today while out rabbit hunting I did just that. I pulled out a 12 foot long, 6 box section of aluminum laying boxes on the neighbors farm. Just thrown in a ditch as back fill, nothing wrong with it at all. Going to good use now!
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Post by plantsnobin on Jan 10, 2010 21:49:05 GMT -5
Well, I can't say I feel too good about this one, but this week I will be trying to salvage what I can from the fire of the 165 year old historic underground railroad house. Talked to Terry and he wants to reuse a few of the brick in the entrance to the house that they will rebuild on the site. He wants me to landscape the new house and I look forward to it. I will work hard to do it justice. I would love to reuse the bricks for the garden but I am afraid the fire was just too hot and they will probably crumble. The cornerstone pieces are cut limestone and I hope to be able to salvage them. I am going to have to work fast on it though, as bulldozer operators aren't too patient with crazy old ladies who are trying to save stuff.
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Post by freedomsailer on Jan 14, 2010 12:05:13 GMT -5
awsome idea on useing the gutters for planters etc. thoes would work well in a green house also for starting plants in, you could hang them everywhere. hmmmmm maybe ill go to the dump soon hehee.
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Post by ceara on Jan 24, 2010 11:51:27 GMT -5
I saw a post once on another garden forum. A lady from England used sections of old eavestrough to start peas in her greenhouse. She dug a corresponding sized trench in her garden where she wanted them to grow, then, when the peas had filled the soil in the eavetrough with a solid enough rootmass sufficiently for handling, she just slid them out of the eavestrough and into the garden. I actually saw that on a video. BBC produced a show called "Grow Your Own Veg" with Carol Klein in 2008 I think, and the series was taped on her property in the UK. She used the gutter in 3 foot lengths to start peas and then slid them out (they stuck at first! hehe) into the prepared bed. While the peas were starting in the greenhouse, she put on some sort of metal covering to keep the mice away. When she sowed peas outdoors she covered the area with holly, which seemed to work as a good mouse-gauntlet. LOL A UK plant called Gorse would also make a good mouse deterrent. That was used on the BBC series "Victorian Kitchen Garden" with Henry Dodson as the head gardener, showing all the old methods of gardening. He put the chopped gorse bits into the shallow pea trench on top of the peas before covering with soil.
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Post by moonlilyhead on Jan 24, 2010 15:30:59 GMT -5
My husband is really good at reusing junk. Right now, he is saving the copper tubing from window a/c units to make some sort of cold water cooling system without electricity that recycles the water. We have a storage buidling full of old scientific equipment that he got from work. He takes them apart and uses the switches, components, etc. for various projects.
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Post by sandbar on Jan 24, 2010 22:31:33 GMT -5
55 gallons barrels ghee whiz, the strawberries are big in California They're not that big, Michel ... I think they put three plants per 55 gallon barrel not one as you probably thought. Of course, with three plants in there Lav has to resort to Miracle Grow to keep em happy ...
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Post by seedywen on Jan 31, 2010 17:55:31 GMT -5
When we bought our current property in 1993, the 4 hectares came with a six bedroom farmhouse. However the house started out as a one room shanty house in the 1920's and had expanded every since that time. The house still stood(barely)on a foundation of first growth fir logs. The roof leaked, the plumbing and wiring were a creative nightmare and two chimney fires in our first winter, convinced us to build a new house. ASAP!
(the farmhouse was not figured into the price of the property, thankfully. As is. Where is. ) LOL
After hubby and myself built the four bedroom new house(to code)in nine months, while homeschooling three kids and building up the farmstead, new fences, barns etc. we had to pull-down the old house by virtue of local by-law(not zoned for two domiciles on same property)
Tearing down the original farmhouse proved way more a challenge then, building the brand-new house. For instance, there was the little matter, that when the property had been fore-closed during the Great Depression in the '30's, the current property owner at that time, had taken out every wooden stud, that he could. He must have been, one desparate or mad man!
Leaving just enough studs to keep the building standing...but once you started removing walls, you never quite knew what was going to happen. Dangerous work. We were younger and much crazier people, back then!
The up-side was, saved every board, (fabulous wood) every chimney brick, copper pipe and METAL GUTTER etc. and stashed in a corner of the property, which I nicknamed...the hardware store.
Providing a wealth of materials, hardware etc. for the next twenty years of home-projects. Other people too, shop at the 'store'. Have provided much wood for siding, cold frames etc. over the years just for the asking. Our new neighbour on the 1 hectare property next door, just asked about the rolls of fencing in the store, taken down when we refenced the 2 hectare hay field. Free! To a good home.
He's building the new fence, not me, and for this, I'm most thankful!
Downside is the previous fifty years on this property, not much was ever removed. We were forever finding junk buried in the earth or tangled in the blackberries. Stuff, like broken glass, sheared sheet metal, wire etc. Most we removed. Some we buried...DEEPER.
The elderly gal who had this stump goat farm before me, lived here into her 80's. I figured she must have lost many of her hardware and gardening tools over her final years here. Every time I find a pair of rusted scissors, pliers, screwdriver, saw...while gardening, I mount it on one of my out-buildings as testimony to those who do, what I do here, in decades bygone.
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Post by jihadacadien on Feb 12, 2010 20:12:07 GMT -5
I reuse anything big enuf to contain a plant for the growing season....big barrels for rain water colecting or composting in the garage during winter.....plastic containers for seed starting...as well as toilet paper rolls and egg carton.....old kiddie pools as raised beds...tires too....here's a vid I made of thing I reuse. www.youtube.com/watch?v=GtW7v1V1JgU&feature=related Oh and great idea about the gutters!Would really make a great long pot for smaller plants!
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Post by lavandulagirl on Mar 26, 2010 9:18:10 GMT -5
The plant Andre runs produces Almond Milk... I just got about 60 5 gallon buckets that had stored almonds. Hooray!
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Post by flowerpower on Mar 27, 2010 6:29:18 GMT -5
Good score, Lav.
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Post by WesTex on Jul 12, 2010 20:26:46 GMT -5
The plant Andre runs produces Almond Milk... I just got about 60 5 gallon buckets that had stored almonds. Hooray! I LOVE 5 gal buckets for Potatoes-in-a-Bucket! These are SO COOL! I chop the tops off the potatoes, let 'em dry out a bit, smack a lid on 'em and store the potatoes JUST LIKE THAT over the winter and use as needed! <3 It's so niffers!
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Post by wildseed57 on Oct 13, 2010 18:42:13 GMT -5
I try to find a use for all kinds of stuff, I have a lot of Stainless steel pipe and tubing that I have kept because i know I will find a use for it, my other half recently moved out into the country side into a 16X80 foot trailer that was recently moved in, as I'm still friendly with her and help her out when I can I visited her today and was looking around to see where the deer and turkeys are feeding and came across a lot of PVC pipe that was tossed after they put the plumbing in, I have a plan for a lighted plant table that is made from PVC pipe so now I have plenty of free pipe and only need to buy fixtures to put it together. I have two 8 foot long industrial florescent light fixtures to light the tables with, so I will be saving a lot of money. Before I became disabled I had worked as a grade 4 welder fabricator building and servicing Metal part washers out in the field, after they tossed me to the wayside I ended up with several different sized water pumps and all kinds of censor valves and water regulators, if I ever get to where I can do some welding again I can build me a water distillation unit with all the stainless steel pipes, tubes, pumps and fixtures, which would save me quite a bit of money. I also have some copper plate that I know I can find a use for, but for now I just have it stored with some heavy 450 vote power line that is about 20 ft. long I don't know just yet what I will do with it. It all boils down to what is ones man's trash is another's treasure. I can even trade a lot of it for something else I need at some point, I may not have a lot of cash but I still can barter which will be of some help if it all goes Crash.
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