A Practical Walk

Warning: When you reuse things in your garden it’s important to make sure they’re safe. For example a lot of wood has been treated and some is not recommended for gardens. I’m showing you what we’ve done, but do your own research.

This is year 2 of repurposing this old tub my husband was paid to haul off. Instead of paying to dump it at the landfill, we filled it with dirt and are growing food in it!

While these old drawers are cute, they have not lasted well as planters are falling apart now.

I grew lettuce in these shallow drawers, but they only lasted for one season.

An old cast iron pot now holds cacti in our front yard.

We had more cedar planks than we needed for building our fence, so some of them became raised garden beds.

Other leftover fence planks were used to make my square-foot gardens.

The logs making up the center bed were from a yard clean up job.

My husband was asked to replace a broken gate, and he brought the old one home. It works grate (pun intended!) for climbing plants.

This giant spool was from another rental house clean up job. I use it as a table for seed starting.

Speaking of seed starting…

I’ve tried various items for starting seeds….

…but my favorite is disposable cups with holes poked in them. Thanks to Mavis Butterfield for this idea!

We’ve collected pots from thrift stores and saved them from plant purchases.

I can’t remember where we got the pallets, but probably a clean up job. I think the wire hanging baskets were from a garage sale or thrift store.

Buckets will holes drilled in the bottom have also worked well.

Last year I used parts of a broken bamboo bed frame for cucumbers to climb on.

A bed made from repurposed wood. I’m also using a bunk-bed ladder for pole beans to climb up…we’ll see how well that works.

Our old mailbox holds gloves and a few garden tools.

My mother-in-law gave me this sunshine that was leftbehind at her house by the previous owner.

This bed was very much not repurposed, in fact my husband bought it for me brand-spankin’ new! Hopefully it’ll be useful for years and years to come!

Please share your best repurposed items in the garden!