Transform Junk into Garden Decorations through Upcycling
Upcycling Everyday Items for a Sustainable Garden
Transform your garden into a haven of creativity and sustainability by repurposing everyday household items into unique planters, support systems, and composting solutions.
Creative Garden Planters
Embrace your inner artist by turning old drawers, tin cans, plastic bottles, broken buckets, shoes, and kitchen containers into charming planters for your garden. For instance, an old chest of drawers can be transformed into raised garden beds by removing the back panel, drilling drainage holes, and filling them with soil to grow herbs or salad greens.
Support Systems
Wooden pallets and reclaimed wood can be adapted into trellises, plant towers, or even rustic garden benches, providing structure for climbing plants while reusing materials already at hand. Stack large planters with reclaimed wood to create support and seating in one.
Composting Solutions
Composting is a fantastic way to enrich your garden soil naturally. Shredded old newspapers or cardboard can be added to compost piles, or try trench composting, where garden paths are dug and filled with organic debris like leaves and garden waste, which decomposes underground, enhancing soil fertility for adjacent beds. For food or pet waste, anaerobic digesters made from perforated metal cans buried underground can contain such waste safely, but the compost from these should not be used on edible plants due to potential pathogens.
Compost tumblers can also be improvised or purchased to facilitate aerobic composting and prevent animal pests. Shredded citrus rinds, eggshells, nut shells, coffee grounds, and tea bags can be added to compost, as recommended by Jeremy Yamaguchi.
Get Creative
Don't be afraid to get creative with composting, finding new ways to reuse items in your garden. Repurpose old metal coat hangers as trellises, cages, or arches for vining plants. Use old tires as raised beds or planters, and DIY cloches made from plastic bottles to protect seedlings from pests and cold temperatures.
Choosy Composting
It's important to be choosy when composting, only using safe and suitable items for your garden. Cardboard can be used to help with weeding, while coffee grounds work well for supplying nitrogen to the soil. Egg shells can be used as an organic calcium source for plants, deterring slugs when spread around the base.
By upcycling items and implementing these sustainable practices, you not only reduce waste but add character and sustainability to your garden while utilizing materials that would otherwise be discarded. Happy gardening!
[1] Gardening Know How [2] Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) [3] Lawn Love [4] Petrus Landscaping [5] GreenPal
- Utilize old drawers, tin cans, plastic bottles, and broken buckets as charming planters to create raised garden beds for herbs and salad greens.
- Reclaim wooden pallets and old wood to build trellises, plant towers, or even rustic garden benches for climbing plants, using them as support structures.
- Composting with shredded newspaper, cardboard, leaves, and garden waste enhances soil fertility through trench composting or compost piles.
- Improvisations and compost tumblers aid aerobic composting and protect against animal pests, while repurposing old metal coat hangers, tires, and plastic bottles adds character to the garden.
- Be mindful when composting, using safe and suitable items like cardboard for weeding, coffee grounds for nitrogen, and eggshells for calcium while deterring slugs.
- By upcycling everyday items, implementing sustainable practices, and using resources responsibly, we can reduce waste, add character to our gardens, and contribute to a more sustainable home-and-garden lifestyle. (with reference to Garden Know How, Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Lawn Love, Petrus Landscaping, and GreenPal)
