Your garden is planted and the first fruits are picked, but your green thumb is still itching. If so, there is plenty you can do in the garden that won’t put a dent in your wallet, and may even clean up the yard to boot.
Take a look in (and behind) your garage, your basement and below the shelves in your garden shed and you may be surprised to find a trove of treasures just waiting to be revealed. With a little imagination, many seemingly broken discards awaiting a trip to the dump can be transformed into conversation starters.
Unique garden containers can be fashioned from just about anything, from old water barrels and broken buckets wrapped in an attractive potato sack to a leaky bathtub, an old cast-iron fireplace or downed log. Single shoes make a great home for succulents and are a showcase wherever they are placed.
If you’ve been considering making a fence or buying lattice for your vining plants, you may already have what you need at home. Pallets, a broken ladder, old bicycle spokes, a busted patio table umbrella or a few pieces of driftwood can all act as a great surface for your favourite vines to crawls up. Soon enough, the plant will overgrow and mask out any imperfections in your creation.
Have you always been meaning to label the abundance of herbs in your kitchen garden patch? All sorts of odds and ends can become a canvas for you and the children in your life to get colourful. Old spoons can be hammered flat and typewriter letters hammered in, and bricks, dented mason jar lids and unique rocks can be painted up.
Those lucky enough to have access to used wooden pallets will have no end of garden project possibilities. Entire patio furniture sets can be created, or a simple compost bin for yard waste and kitchen scraps that is less likely to act as an attractant for animals.
This may also be a great time of year to work on reinforcing garden pathways. Cedar sawdust is a good filler, as cedar has properties that prevent it from degrading quickly and also deters growth of weeds. Stepping stones can be made from cross sections of a downed tree, or cement tiles made using scrap wood can be used for framing.
To get your imagination wheels turning, take a look online for upcycled garden projects. You’re sure to find one that matches the materials and time you have on hand.
Let’s Talk Trash is qathet Regional District’s waste-reduction education program.
