Re-using junk!

[synergy]

I have been lamenting what I will do to protect my tiny fruit and nut tree saplings I am trying to establish out in my pasture from my brutish horses . I really do not have the funds to allocate to buying materials . Today however I was at my vets office and he had ripped out heavy tied grid fence in sections for discard and I asked if I could have it. Free disposal for him and repurposing material for me to build cages around my trees and a chicken run too!
I am one happy lady : )

[garnetmoth]

Great score Synergy!

I am reading a bit more about beans and I see this www.gardeners.com/Garden-Maypole-Flower-Support/35-911,default,pd.html?SC=XNET8002 I just found 2 big outdoor umbrellas (not really big enough to bother building a support for, like the type that goes over a 2-seat cafe table) and have made a burden cloth with one of the canvases- One umbrella support is metal, one is wood, but I think theyd both make dandy bean-tepees?!

[Alan]

This past week I re-used an old snow/ice collapsed greenhouse frame dropped off by the town drunk several years ago to create a new little hot bed for starting seedlings, also made good use of some creek rock for the walls. You can check it out at homegrowngoodness.blogspot.com

In the spring I'll do a blog on my new "quail tractor".

I should really just make a whole 'nother blog called "being a broke farmer and making due with crap that four generations of family and town drunks leave strung around your property!"

[synergy]

You know what , I think repurposing materials besides being thrifty is absolutely NOBLE . It takes thoughtfulness , ingenuity and imagination. It optimizes the worlds resources . I truly believe that.

I would love it if the land transfer station (dump) would let us do free salvage, so much should really not be going into the landfill or dumped in oceans. Yes my yard and house is sort of a cultural homage to recycling stuff from other people. I have one cold frame that was a truck roof rack my ex's brother left at one of my houses for storage 20 years ago and I moved that thing and kept it and finally just hauled it into the garden and draped it with poly.

I scooped some commercial metal wire magazine racks from the side of the road thinking they would make great architecture for beans to climb but then I loaded them with the OLD organic gardening magazines from the seventies in my basement so it feels like a library with a comfy couch and bookshelf for really hot summer days hiding from the heat of the day. If oil production takes a sharp decline those things are being hauled out to the garden to grow beans!

[synergy]

I cannot even imagine buying some things anymore when there is so much available free on craigslist if you have the time to wait for what you want to come up. I think of long term projects and start thinking what could be repurposed to make that possible?
There are amazing finds, a smokehouse with franklin stove, rabbit hutches, chicken coops, free working truck , lumber etc. just in one week.

Looking at metal filing cabinets for free, they come up regularily . I thought they would be great for those with a cabin to use as a rodent proof pantry for food items you leave there.

Solid wood dressers , entertainments centres , bookshelves or wardrobes for repurposed as cold frames and raised bed planters. I am starting to look at stuff like this and think, other people are discarding this, its free, how easy would it be to make an oak raised bed by cutting out some of the back and filling it with soil ? Oak shelving to hold a battery bank for the solar and mount inverters and such?

Lots of hot tubs for repurposing into an aquaponics system or small pond liners for ducks etc.

I have to refrain from making my place into a warehouse , doing a little at at a time as I can but there are amazing resources if you can repurpose them.

[mnjrutherford]

I like your notions for hot tubs. I want to get an above ground pool to use the water as an emergency gray water source. I'm thinking that if it's covered it will need less cleaning. It would also help with summer cooling as would a porch.

[easternkentucky]

Old refrigerators and old deep freezes.There is a lil old lady who lives near me and she has 3 old freezers that she uses as raised beds.She said," Her knees and back were to bad for her to get low,and this way she can stand and do her gardening.The refrigerator is turned on its back with the doors taken off and filled with soil.It doesn't look bad either she has them all painted brown.

[mnjrutherford]

Well I'll be darned. I like that idea! Would make a pretty interesting and convenient cold frame as well I'd imagine.

[grunt]

They also make good mouse proof feed bins, if you lay them on their back (take the latches off the lid so it's impossible to get locked in). I have an apartment sized freezer that I kept my chicken feed in (when I had chickens).

[steev]

I've thought I could make a pretty good smoke-house from an old fridge.

Since I haul yard-waste to the dump for recycling at least once a week, I've often wondered how many countries there are that have annual budgets less than the value of what California discards each year.

[seedywen]

Recently have seen nifty compost bins made out of converted chest freezers. Although the one's I saw are a little different from the one described in the link, the file gives the general idea. And the local bins were painted black.
files.uniteddiversity.com/Composting_and_Recycling/Hot-Composting-in-converted-chest-freezers.pdf

Have used two freezers for grain storage for many years, which keep the rats and especially the racoons from raiding the larder.

[mjc]

I've retasked old, defunct chest freezers as 'grain bins'. They work great for holding critter feed. A large one can hold nearly a ton of feed.

[floricole]

Hi

here is what i have done with the old porch railling. It's a 3 story garden for my mom. no place for a wide garde in the city.
I use 2 gal. bag to grow eggplants and green peppers.

[synergy]

That is amazing floricole, is all of that growing out of bags?

[steev]

Whenever I have a load of broken concrete to discard, I take it to a re-cyclery where they're essentially building a small mountain. On the way back down, I stop at an area where they dump stone, shards and remnants of polished panels used for counters and such, often quite large pieces of very beautiful color and pattern. They'll chase me off if I'm noticed, but bit by bit I'm stockpiling the materials for my patio. To paraphrase the Bard, "who steals trash, doesn't need a purse".