On Thu, 26 May 2005 16:49:06 +0000, spaceclanger
wrote:


Hello,

I'm a university student studying for my final year at Sheffield Hallam
and I need to complete some research on garden recycling and re-use. I'd
really appreciate it if you could take the time to answer a few
questions, even if they're only short answers, anything's good!

What kind of things do you recycle in a garden?

Do you use things/objects for other purposes and if so what are they
and for
what purposes are they used?

Anyone got any stories about interesting and creative ways of re-using
things??


His Bobness, Duke of Flowerdew is yer man - from old tyres to
knackered fridges, he'll find a use for it.
You could try emailing Gardener's Question Time at the BBC ( Radio 4
).

As to my own efforts, I make use of old carpet ( hessian backed ) as
mulch ( pulled off skips at the local tip ); I use old yoghurt cartons
etc. as plant pots for seedlings; broken chimney pots ( these can be
glued back together with resin or cement ) as ornamental
planters...ditto any other 'attractive' container, such as milking
pots; water cooler bottles as large cloches; scrap mains wiring to
mark out beds ( and as a washing line! ); old 40 gallon spice drums as
worm composters; part of the fibreglass mould of a giant water tap as
a compost bin; a washing machine drum as a brazier; an old nylon
'tarpaulin' as a plant-through mulch for the strawberry bed; a steel
water tank as a barbecue base; old net curtains as floating mulches
and insect barriers; the stand of an old mangle as a garden chair.

Recycling isn't just about using items unrelated to gardening - it's
also about re-using items that others have thrown away.
Most of my garden tools ( save for a decent spade and fork ) have been
bought from the local tip. Ditto my lawnmowers, cobbled together from
a decent engine here and a stout chassis there. Likewise garden
netting and chickenwire, wood preservatives, hosepipes ( a handful of
hoselock unions will turn four short lengths of hosepipe into one long
one ), watering cans etc.. Even the kid's tree-platform was built from
wood picked out of skip, and the swing is an old heavy-duty towrope.

Currently under 'development' is a self-powered sieve, constructed
from a washing machine drum, a few bits of 4x2 and an old
bicycle...though with little success so far ( think the holes in the
drum are too small, and there need to be a 'baffle' in the drum to
agitate the soil ) - and a cold frame built from scrap double glazing
panels.
I'm also considering a catapault made from bicycle inner tubes to use
for lobbing the neighbour's cat shit back...

But for the height of coolness there's the 'hanging basket' made out
of an old saxophone.

Regards,



--
Stephen Howard - Woodwind repairs & period restorations
www.shwoodwind.co.uk
Emails to: showard{whoisat}shwoodwind{dot}co{dot}uk