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??


Thanks!

Rose Perkins

I don't know if this counts as recycling, but pee is very useful for getting the compost heap cooking nicely.

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?
::
Everything, vegatation composts down to help produce more vegetation, solids
like timber and bricks etc are re-used time and again.

:: Do you use things/objects for other purposes and if so what are
:: they and for
:: what purposes are they used?
::
empty plastic drinks bottles with the bottoms cut off have a few uses, they
can be pressed into the ground over tender plants to make mini cloches, or
turned over with the wide end facing upwards they can be fixed into growbags
to fill with water, allowing a more thorough soaking.

old dustbins are filled with water to use as water butts.

Old video tapes are broken into and the tape fastened to stakes in a net
fashion, it makes a hideous racket when the wind blows on it and birds don't
like it, old CD's hung on cotton have a similar use, they flash and scare
birds away.

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

There's probably at least a hundred others but I can't think of them..


--
If God had intended us to drink beer, He would have given us stomachs.

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

"Phil L" wrote in message
k...
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?
::


If you check out our (barely begun) site -
http://mysite.wanadoo-members.co.uk/ourallotment

You'll find in misc photos pics of the obelisk I made by welding old
horseshoes together, the planter I made out of the big plastic tubes found
in the middle of rolls of carpet, and the undersoil irrigation I put in the
greenhouse on the allotment, made out of some waste pipe and fittings I
rescued from a skip.

Also all my manure and compost bins are made from old pallets, as are the
raised beds, duckboards, and the shelving and seat-cum-toolchest in the
shed.

Various water containers rescued from skips collect the rainwater from the
shed and greenhouse, via guttering also from skips, natch. The planking on
top of the compost bins in the garden, on top of which yet another water
tank sits, came from pontoons at a quay in Poole harbour.

The pond in the garden was on it's way to the tip when I rescued it. I
wouldn't have bothered, but I had a fibreglass repair kit lying about at the
time. Guess where that came from.

The small shed in the garden is made from timber diverted from on it's way
to the tip, and has a roof made of an aluminium sheet which started life as
a double garage door. Mind you you don't want to be in the shed when it
hails :-))

And lots of other stuff.

I have been lucky in having long been involved in scrap metal and waste
disposal, or at least on the fringes, and being a natural scrounger. Perhaps
you can tell.

Steve

shazzbat wrote:
[...]
, and the undersoil irrigation
I put in the greenhouse on the allotment, made out of some waste
pipe and fittings I rescued from a skip.
[...]

That's interesting, but counter-intuitive to me: what's the advantage
of having the irrigation underneath?

--
Mike.

On Sat, 28 May 2005 13:21:28 +0100, "Mike Lyle"
wrote:

shazzbat wrote:
[...]
, and the undersoil irrigation
I put in the greenhouse on the allotment, made out of some waste
pipe and fittings I rescued from a skip.
[...]

That's interesting, but counter-intuitive to me: what's the advantage
of having the irrigation underneath?

Saves water.
Less evaporation.

Regards,



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

Stephen Howard wrote:
On Sat, 28 May 2005 13:21:28 +0100, "Mike Lyle"
wrote:

shazzbat wrote:
[...]
, and the undersoil irrigation
I put in the greenhouse on the allotment, made out of some waste
pipe and fittings I rescued from a skip.
[...]

That's interesting, but counter-intuitive to me: what's the
advantage
of having the irrigation underneath?

Saves water.
Less evaporation.

A good reason. So you don't get a problem with the holes blocking up,
or over-enthusiastic roots getting in?

--
Mike.

"Mike Lyle" wrote in message
...
Stephen Howard wrote:
On Sat, 28 May 2005 13:21:28 +0100, "Mike Lyle"
wrote:

shazzbat wrote:
[...]
, and the undersoil irrigation
I put in the greenhouse on the allotment, made out of some waste
pipe and fittings I rescued from a skip.
[...]

That's interesting, but counter-intuitive to me: what's the
advantage
of having the irrigation underneath?

Saves water.
Less evaporation.

A good reason. So you don't get a problem with the holes blocking up,
or over-enthusiastic roots getting in?

--
Not so far. It's the first year I've used it, I can just pour a couple of
cans of water in, and it goes right to the roots. I'll post later in the
year if there are any problems with it, if you're interested.

After everything is over for this year, I plan to put a T in the pipe, lead
it outside and connect to the guttering so it gets watered inside the
greenhouse when it rains. Sometimes work prevents me getting to the
allotment as often as I like, so this will hopefully prevent some losses.

Steve