New recycling/reuse thread a la the last one by Mis Chief

Discussion in 'Designing, building, making and powering your life' started by sun burn, Oct 20, 2011.

  1. sun burn

    sun burn Junior Member

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    Well after i went and bought five big plastic bags to plant some border screening shrubs in, today it occurred to me that my old duck feed bags would be perfect. (I'd have saved $11. ) And i have tons of these bags and never have enough things to do with them.

    (i'm using these bags as a pot plant because i want the plants to be off the ground but also because i am planting running bamboo and don't want the roots going in the ground.

    My first idea was to plant something else in which case the roots would not have been in teh ground until the plant was older. I'd think those bags would last quite a while in that way. But now iwth the bamboo, i can slit hte sides so that the roots can go out and around in the box while at the same time getting some support from the bag. I am going to build a corrugated iron box around them to keep it off the ground. It will be about 6 metres or so long. Maybe even a bit longer.

    What are you latest reuse and recycling discoveries? Share your ideas here. :)
     
  2. annette

    annette Junior Member

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    great idea sunburn.

    2 old bench seats I found on the side of the road. Will nail them together to make a garden bed.

    An old satelitte dish I have converted to a feeding tray for the possums.

    2 big black plastic pots with a brick on either side to stop it moving for the chooks as a nest

    an old ladder for a bunk bed for a sort of trellis

    old bed ends tied together for a passionfruit vine

    stripped some old branches to use later for support for beans

    on old cast iron bath tub I will use to have an outside bath in the bush. Will just put it up on some bricks and light a fire underneath. that cost me $1 on ebay.

    still got those 44 gallon drums to work on too.
     
  3. purecajn

    purecajn Junior Member

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    your on a roll annette. Anyone with ideas for a low cost trellis for kiwi? As I understand it the plant needs a extremely strong one, but that just might be popular opinion.
     
  4. Don Hansford

    Don Hansford Junior Member

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    Namaste purecajn

    I'm looking at putting a trellis up next to a shed, using concrete reinforcing mesh. I'll need to make (or scrounge) some sort of brackets to hold it out from the shed wall (about 150mm / 6" should be enough).
     
  5. purecajn

    purecajn Junior Member

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    I'm rinning grapes and muscadines up same Don. Hoping the vine won't destroy it.
     
  6. Don Hansford

    Don Hansford Junior Member

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    Shouldn't destroy it (unless they're crossed with Triffids). The trick with anything steel is to keep it from contact with the ground - that destroys it pretty quick!
     
  7. purecajn

    purecajn Junior Member

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    thnk don
     
  8. Grahame

    Grahame Senior Member

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    Cut up an old tent fly to cover my seedlings at night to keep the possums off.

    Old perspex windscreen cut up for part of my broody box. Fixed a broken fridge shelf with another bit of it.

    I use baling twine (from the bales I use to mulch the garlic beds) to hang my garlics up to dry. Actually I use baling twine for about 4000 uses.

    I cut up old plastic milk bottles to make seedling labels.
     
  9. sun burn

    sun burn Junior Member

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    Wouldn't it be nice to have a photo file for all the pictures showing our reuse/recycling ideas in practice.
     
  10. pippimac

    pippimac Junior Member

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    I second Grahame on the baling twine.
    Old metal gates leant together as a cucumber frame.
    Ex double-hung window sashes against the house as cold frames. Eventually I'll actually make proper frames for them, but they work fine for now.
    Old Venetian blinds as plant labels. Pencil's the most durable marker, 2b's good. The blinds have handy holes to hang from trees.
    Old galvanised cold water pipes make fantastic stakes. I have them concreted in supporting my espalier fruit trees. I'm slightly obsessed with stakes, which will only intensify as the tomato season advances!
     
  11. purecajn

    purecajn Junior Member

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    I second that Sun. It would be great to have a Permie-Hack page showing instructions for recycling. We could even have contests to see whom could come up with the least expensive ways to overcome growing problems with say the person with the best hacks for the year becoming elegible for some permie prize. Maybe win a copy of bills book or a cd series etc....
     
  12. annette

    annette Junior Member

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    I found another good idea today. Get some old PVC piping and cut it up into lengths about 30 centremetres long. Push it into the garden and put food scraps down the hole. You can cover it with some plastic if you like. This feeds worms already in the soil and improves the soil because the worms will go to work. May save time for those you don't have a worm farm or a compost pile or bin. Then you can just move the pvc pipe around or you can have lots of them around the place.
     
  13. wormwood scrubs

    wormwood scrubs Junior Member

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    not original, but old hardwood fences for garden beds, gates and (soon) chicken house. ends from a change table for pea supports, old bucket for worm farm, just like pvc pipe but with a ready made lid just chop the bottom out. milk cartons for seedling pots, tins for seed holders, cardboard boxes for potato growing (we will see how well this lasts - i hoping that by the time the cardboard loses all strength the tater roots will hold it together.

    i also turned an old fence gate into . . . a slightly newer gate
     
  14. permasculptor

    permasculptor Junior Member

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    old roller garage doors can be cut to form raised bed edges in any shape .
     
  15. wormwood scrubs

    wormwood scrubs Junior Member

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    and i want to try an old dead saxophone body as a hanging strawberry planter
     
  16. eco4560

    eco4560 New Member

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    While in Cambodia I watched builders filling in a raised pad with rocks before concreting. No wheelbarrow - so they put 3 empty cement bags down between 2 long straight branches, and nailed on 2 long bits of wood - through the edge of the bag onto the branches and made a sling. Carry to rock pile, rest on ground, load with rocks, one man on each end, carry to where you want rocks, unload, repeat.

    I've reset my definition of poor. Not having a wheelbarrow is only a little bit poor. Not having old cement bags would be really poor....
     
  17. annette

    annette Junior Member

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    Great ideas everyone. May write a book!!
     
  18. Don Hansford

    Don Hansford Junior Member

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    You should follow me around for a few weeks - plenty of material for a book (or two, but there may be a need for a censor on one!). When I was growing up, you never threw anything away, and if you did, you usually came back from the tip with a bigger load than you took.

    I have a very cunning acquaintance who has built his own one-man sawmill out of old car, truck and tractor parts. He's over 80 and still runs the mill on a daily basis.

    We used to build four wheel drive articulated-steering bush buggies out of old cars, put side-valve V8 motors in things like Morris Minors (went like hell, but the diff/gearboxes didn't usually last the weekend). All my uncles & grandparents were what the pommies call "bodgers" - able to make something out of nothing, and have some spares left over.

    The three greatest inventions in the world are self-drilling screws, silastic, and a hammer - you can build almost anything with those :D


    I have a bicycle brake lever as the latch on the backyard gate - you can just nudge it with your elbow if your hands are full - I'll try to remember to get a photo of it tomorrow.
     

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