While we’re all familiar with the usual bits-and-bobs you can use around the garden, we want to highlight the weird odds-and-ends you might have sitting about (you might even have them in your recycling bin!) that you may not have yet considered as great garden accessories! We’ll let you in on some secret upcycling garden ideas.
While getting outdoors and rolling up your sleeves might feel like a world away, it’ll be here before you know it. We wanted to share this blog post now in case some of these items are in your bin right now!
Give these oddities a new lease on life in your yard this year, and convert them into a gardening mainstay and save them from the landfill!
Have you participated in takeout days to support restaurants during COVID-19?
Here is an idea to reuse those takeout containers! ♻️
“Today I decided to reuse a bunch of fast food containers to plant my micro greens for next month. 🌱
They are the perfect size and depth for small shoots and with a couple of holes in the lid, it keeps the humidity in, creating a greenhouse effect. 🌿
I used fast draining soil due to the lack of drainage holes in the bottom.💦
Are there any cool ways that you can think of reusing & re-purposing take out or fast food containers?” 💁
Thank you to our Green Spotted Volunteer, Camille Knight from Toronto for this awesome #RandomActofGreen! 🙏
🌎 Don’t Ditch Downspouts! 🌎
If you’re changing out leaky eavestroughs: don’t throw them away!
Drill some holes in the bottom for drainage and convert them into wall (or fence) mounted planters.
Imagine hanging these outside of your kitchen window then filling them chock-full of fresh herbs!
🌎 Reuse Packaging and Keep Your Seeds Safe 🌎
There’s no need to buy fancy jars or containers for your seed storage.
Save up old bottles or sauce jars with sealable lids or baggies with ziplock tops to keep you winter haul safe.
Old takeout trays with dividers are great. You can keep your seeds separate = no surprises in the vegetable patch!
🌎 Is Your Rain Barrel Past Its Best? 🌎
Convert it to an outdoor planter!
Gently slice it in half like the team at Gardens All did here ➡️
If you don’t want to build the frame to hold these up length ways, cut the rain barrel in half the other way and make free standing planters.
🌎 What Can You Do With Old Copper Pipe? 🌎
If you’re modernizing and getting copper piping removed from your home by your local plumber, don’t thrown it away!
Copper is an easy to manipulate metal, it’s also really eye catching and can make for an attractive addition to your garden.
Here’s a quick round up of easy-to-actualize upcycling garden idea DIY’s:
🐌. Cute windchimes.
🐌. A copper trellis < link to DIY here.
🐌. Fruit patch netting.
Some veggies are pretty resilient (we’re lookin’ at you, potatoes!).
Large planters are very expensive. Get creative and reuse fido’s old dog food bags.
Roll the top down, weigh with a couple of bricks and drainage materials then fill ‘er up.
A super easy spot to grow potatoes. This is a great hack if you’re short on space – veggies on the balcony anyone?
🌎 Convert Your Old Shampoo Bottles 🌎
Give your shampoo or body wash bottles a new lease on life AND make a best friend of tweetie pie.
This upcycling garden DIY idea is super easy. String a homemade birtdfeeder up this weekend and see who visits your backyard!
Let us know in the comments below which birds you spot.
🌎 Get Your Seeds Started Indoors! 🌎
While these cute containers are biodegradable and recyclable – we’re always in favour of stretching something’s life a little longer while omitting the need to buy new!
Use mini containers like these as great seed starters.
We loved sharing these upcycling garden ideas and tips with you. Let us know, what fun DIY’s have you incorporated into your yard?
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I LOVE your Random Acts of Green site!! I buy everything I can made by “green” companies. I also reuse as many things as I can. I love to start my seeds in paper egg cartons. That way, the plants that don’t like to be transplanted don’t need their roots disturbed because all I do is pull apart the egg carton and each little plant keeps its roots intact. I also fill the paper egg cartons with saw dust that I sweep from under my husband’s saw and melt paraffin, mix the two together, pack it back in the egg carton and let it harden. All winter we have fire starters for our wood stove. That gives you 12 fires for the price of 2 squares of paraffin. There are 4 squares in a box. We don’t have newspaper to start fires with because we read the papers on line. Anything we can think of to help save our beautiful planet, we’ll do! I can’t wait to try the bird feeder! I made a birdhouse years ago out of a metal coffee can. It’s still hanging and many generations of sparrows have been raised there!
Wow, Nancy! This is such a phenomenal rundown of green-acts.
Thank you for sharing them with us AND for doing so much for our shared space.
The birdhouse sounds like a lovely idea – we *just* posted on our Instagram and Facebook feeds about how sparrow populations are dwindling; they need our help – comments such as yours give me hope 🙂
And we agree – egg cartons are the perfect seed starters! It’s amazing how many everyday things have a double purpose when we really think about it.
Incase you haven’t seen – we have a special Challenge coming up this April which I think you might enjoy. You can see more info. and Pledge to Participate: https://raog.ca/mother-earth-emoji-challenge-%f0%9f%98%8d%f0%9f%8c%8e/
Thank you so much again for sharing your green acts, and please do keep us posted on any other tips and tricks you discover (and if you try to make the bird feeder!).
– Stephanie