Trash to Treasure in the Garden

The old windows from my brothers house I used on my arbors.

Trash to Treasure in the Garden

Every year our town has a spring clean-up week and what they don’t want anymore goes to the curb. I start ‘shopping’ early. Over the last few years, I have collected a few lengths of picket fence four feet tall I use for pole bean trellis, an old baby crib I use for peas to climb and old planters, even if they are broken. I use the broken ones for mosaic pieces to adorn the unbroken ones.

Spring is also the time that many people remodel. I collected as many windows of all shapes and sizes and as much useable lumber and built a small but quite sturdy greenhouse! Now I can get my plants started early.

      -Jackie

I admit, that some of my favorite garden things are things I’ve found in dumpsters, on the side of the road and begged my brother not to dump during his remodel. Right now my big thing is how to use up all the windows from his house. They are from the 1920’s and just really cool old windows. I put up 6 on our new arbors for a trellis.

 

I have also saved old sinks, a bed frame (to make a “flower bed”) and of course old wheelbarrows, stoves etc. My poor hubby keeps asking, “What are you going to do with this?” “What did you drag home now?”

      -Tawra

 

I don’t question what Tawra drags home anymore. I know she usually has a really good reason.You can tell how well trained I was when the  last time we were moving her brother and I found an old funny looking bucket with the bottom all rusted out. We were going to toss it but after years of good training (her dad was the same way too) we knew we should ask before we tossed it and, sure enough, it was a treasure.

I love the neighborhood clean-ups too. Last year I wasn’t even looking for anything but noticed my neighbor had set out two huge sections of metal fence in perfect condition. I have mostly metal fencing except for a 15 ft. section of wood that is so bad I have it tied with baling wire trying to keep it from falling. The neighbors pieces are exactly what I need and I even have two metal posts already in the ground. God must have been watching over me though because five minutes after I got them, the trucks came by to haul them off. I almost missed getting them!

      -Jill

 

photo by Susie