Gardening Bench Workstation: From Our Readers

Rhonda White of Her Christian Home has a very neat idea of a gardening bench workstation to have all her pots and tools there. So she turned her “Baker’s Rack” into her very own Gardening Bench Workstation! And a really beautiful one! I think it will make any garden prettier and cozier!

Please check the whole tutorial here!

Rhonda also has an awesome Pinterest board where she curates all kinds of fun upcycling ideas. Check it out and follow!

Old Farm Machinery Bits into Garden Decor

We continue featuring our readers and frugal living advicates. In today's edition David Leonhardt shares how he has turned old farm machinery into garden decor and tools

I've placed a few rusted, but nicely-formed, bits of old farm machinery in my garden.  Rather than ship it all to the dump when cleaning out the old barn, I used some as decor.  I had also found a couple old metal pots (from 100 years ago, perhaps?) which I now use to water plants beyond the reach of the hose.

Featured Company: TerraCycle Turns Trash into Useful Products

It's great to see upcycling make it to the news headlines and big companies with funding emeging as a result:

TerraCycle make millions recycling trash and turn it into useful products, such as fertilizers.

Watching their video gives you a clear view of how much the company is doing for upcycling! Look at how they re-use glass bottles:

Or take a look at their chair beautified by candy wrappers!

Great cause to participate in!

4 Ways To Create A Kitchen Garden Using Upcycled Materials

 

Whether you live in an apartment and have no yard space or are just enchanted with the idea of growing a bit of food in your own kitchen or on your porch, creating a kitchen garden can be fun and rewarding. There are, of course, a host of kitchen garden pots, planters and other tools available for purchase, but why not create your kitchen garden using upcycled materials? What better way is there to be kind to the environment while enjoying home-grown food straight from your own kitchen?

What to Grow 

A number of plants are suitable for a kitchen garden, but it is important to take into account root depth, sunlight requirements and more. Below are a few suggestions of plants worthy of consideration for your kitchen garden.

• Strawberries: Nothing quite beats the romance of picking plump, red berries off your own personal plants. Because they are shallow-rooted plants, they adapt well to container growing.
• Lettuce: Incredibly easy to grow, lettuce is a top candidate for kitchen gardens, especially if you choose a cut-and-come-again lettuce blend. There are some fantastic seed blends with a wide range of leaf textures and colors and tastes that vary from bland to spicy.
• Herbs: The best chefs use fresh herbs. Join their ranks by planting your own food seasonings such as chives, basil, rosemary, parsley and thyme.
• Tomatoes: Be cautious when selecting tomato plants. If you have limited space, you will want to look for patio container varieties. These will stay a bit more contained than some of the bigger garden varieties. You can also grow tomato plants specifically for indoor growing, as they don't require bees to pollinate them. Although the pollen naturally drops from one flower to another, some growers suggest gently shaking your tomato plant to encourage pollination.
• Radishes: Their compact size and bursts of color make it a no brainer – it must be included in the kitchen garden!
• Dwarf Carrots: While your average carrot is too long for many containers, the more compact, ball-type carrots work well.

These are some of the easiest to grow and most popular plants for a kitchen garden. Of course, you can grow many other things, but keep in mind that plants such as watermelon and squash need a lot of space! Once you have decided what to grow, it is time to get down to the business of finding containers in which to plant.

10 Cool DIY Projects Using Old Tires

The other day I was in my garage and I realized something: we have way too many tires. Living where we do, we end up driving into the mountains a great deal, or further south and into the dessert. Both types of terrain can be rough on rubber, and we go through a full set of tires once a year. For a long time we just threw the old ones out, but now we have been patching and reusing them instead of purchasing new ones.

Obviously, this is better than tossing them both environmentally and economically. But we still have more than we need, and I had no idea what to do with them. Sell them? Give them away? That is when my Pinterest instinct kicked in and I knew I had to see if I could find some good upcycling projects for them.

These are the ten coolest I found.

1. Tire Swing

Teapot Bird House

That's just the cutest thing I have seen in my life.

The teapot looks somewhat vintage but I am sure there are plenty of various combinations how this may look.

Running to the attic now to find something cool to build a bird house now!


Via Pinterest 
Find more green gardening ideas with these green-inspired instructographics

Mason Jars into Elegant Garden Lanterns

Mason jars work great as upcycling material: they look pretty (no need for extra decor) and are rather thick and reliable (they aren't even afraid of open fire).

Here's a detailed tutorial on creating stylish mason jar lanterns to decorate your garden.

You will need:

• 1 pint or ½ pint mason jars
• 2-2 ½ feet of bailing wire per lantern
• Sand
• Votive or tea light candles

Tools:

• Pencil
• Wire cutters
• Needle Nose Pliers

More cool DIY ideas for garden lanterns

• DIY Metal Cans Garden Laterns
• How to Make Recycled Wine Bottle Torch

Plastic Bottle into a Bird Feeder

Bird feeders are always fun to make as you can easily enroll your kids into the process. It is awesome to watch birds coming and it also teaches your children to care for the Nature (which, in turn, makes them kinder, more responsible and eco-conscious).

Here are a couple of nice-looking useful and smart ways to re-use your old plastic bottles into bird-feeders:

1) For this one, apart from a large plastic bottle, you will also need two wooden spoons that work as actual feeders. The wholes above the spoons will let bird seeds out, but not too much:

2) I fell in love with this one: the roof looks fantastic! And your kids will love the idea of "Welcome home" message. It must really feel at home there:

Recycle Old-Fashioned Belts into a Garden Chair

If you have an old lawn chair that is already too old to offer your barbecue guests to sit on it, here's a great idea to renovate it: use your old forgotten western belts as webbing for the tired chair.



Breathe new life into your backyard chair!

Plastic Bottles into Upside Down Herb Planters

If you love planting and adore original designs and ideas, you will find this idea simply awesome! Plant herbs upside down and use old plastic bottles for this!

• These save plenty of space;
• They look amazing and fun (your guests and friends will love it!)
• That's an awesome way to reuse old plastic bottles.

Here's the detailed instruction as well as another way to implement the idea.

More ways to re-use those plastic bottles:

• Recycle a Plastic Bottle into a Box
• Plastic Bottle Sand Watch
• Build a Greenhouse of Plastic Bottles
• Plastic Bottle Candle Holder
• Sandals for the Beach Made of Plastic Bottles

Wine Bottle into the Garden Borders

If you like gardening and recycling, I am sure you are always looking for new creative ways to combine the two.

Here's an awesome tip for you: use wine bottles as borders and edges: this looks nice and is 100% eco-friendly. They can be arranged in a pretty way and they will never get old: will last as long as they want to keep them in the garden.

You may enroll you whole neighborhood into collecting the bottles. This should be fun!

Via 

More ideas on recycling wine bottles:

• Wine Bottle Chandelier
• Wine Bottle Torch

More gardening DIY projects:

• Build a Greenhouse of Plastic Bottles
• A CD Case into Garden Cloche
• DIY Metal Cans Garden Laterns
• Skateboard Table for Your Garden
• Solar Powered CD-Case Bricks

Solar Powered CD-Case Bricks!

This DIY project is harder to create than our usual discovery but I was so much amazed by its pure coolness that I couldn't help sharing it.

Look how awesome those solar powered CD-Case LED bricks look at night: you are definitely likely to want to create those for your garden or lawn...

They incorporate ... things to mess around with: LEDs, Solar panels, hot glue, man it's all there and they look great to boot!

DIY Wheel Stool

Need a quick stool for your porch? Here's a brilliant idea for you: a stool a of a wheel!

The wheel still spins, and a little red paint gives it a jaunty air

Not sure how comfortable it is but why not?

Build a Greenhouse of Plastic Bottles

Some ideas just keep amazing me! Now you can put ALL your used plastic bottles to good use: build a greenhouse with them. What's more, the greenhouse stands on a foundation made out of recycled tires.

Via

DIY Sprinkler Made of a Plastic Bottle and Ball Point PensB

Here's a nice tutorial on making a DIY sprinkler for under $5 to water your lawn. Materials needed:

• 1 plastic bottle with cap
• 1 universal male hose attachment
• 15 used ball point pens
• Plumbing contact adhesive and sealant
• Electric drill

The detailed instruction can be found here