Bits and Pieces...The reduce/reuse/recycle thread

[Farmer_Gyles]

i've built a fence from old builders pallets to keep the dogs off my veggie patch
cost one bag of nails, couple of hinges, gate catch, 3 bags of ready mixed post hole cement, total about £15

[singleseeder]

Another use for 1 or 2pt milk bottles.......... keep your string neat, clean and dry.

Cut around the middle of the bottle a couple of inches from the bottom and pierce a hole (for the string to come out) near the lid. Put your string in the base and push the two halves of the bottle back together (you can overlap them a bit) and tape securely. Make sure you have threaded the end of the string through the hole at the top first.

If you want to be trendy, you could wear this on your belt (belt through handle) for jobs needing lots of string!

[madmum23]

As last summer was so wet, to protect my cucumber plants from the damp, I used the clear plastic cover you get from the Dry Cleaners together with a metal hanger, as a cloche.

I put a screw high up on the fence panel, where the pots were standing, and draped the cover over the plants securing it at the top of the pot by pulling up the excess plastic cover and tying an elastic band around it. It worked really well as each pot also had a cane supporting the plant. It stopped the slugs from devouring them as well.

I also cut the top and bottom off large bottles of coke and plant them over my sweetcorn seedlings to protect from slugs and also give them a warm collar to grow through. Once the plants have fruited, I simply pull up the plant and slip the plastic sleeve off the bottom. I love to reuse things that would normally just get thrown away.

[Buttie]

[QUOTE=Johnny Appleseed;425309]Does anyone make their own newspaper bricks for fires these days?

There used to be a machine to compress the pulp into brickettes to burn?

I use a brickette maker over the Summer to make paper bricks for my son's wood burner stove. He says they take a while to get going but burn slowly & are ok. He also saws them into firelighter size pieces, soaks them and uses them as firelighters.

[carlseawolf]

yes they do , but as james said the brick are in the finishing touches.

[Jameslovell]

Prehaps the finishing touches also includes a few bricks...he he he

[Snadger]

Made this lobster creel out of waste material, just needs roping and finishing touches

Errrr.....does wood and plastic not FLOAT Carl!? Lol

[carlseawolf]

Made this lobster creel out of waste material, just needs roping and finishing touches

[starloc]

Ive been getting the `hot choc. fudge cake` from sainsburys, its got a black plastic tray about 9 inch round , with a clear dome snap on lid, works great as a seed tray with mini greenhouse, its about £2.50 or £3 on special offer half price! (wouldnt pay 6.00 for it!), but the seed tray with clear lid comes with a free choc. cake, and someones got to eat it!

[JILLY JACKSON]

My grandson brings all his lolly sticks to me for my labels!!

[Johnny Appleseed]

Re-using old newspapers

I get a newspaper every day, so I generate a lot of waste.

- shredded, it is used for guinea pig bedding

- shredded newspaper goes in my bean trenches to retain moisture at the roots

Does anyone make their own newspaper bricks for fires these days?

There used to be a machine to compress the pulp into brickettes to burn?

Is this a viable option please? We also have a lot of newspaper waste to dispose of.

Many thanks

[BumbleB]

Bringing this back to the top and hoping for some more great tips. My tip is to raid your family or friends recycle bins for any containers/bottles/loo roll middles etc for items that you may not use at home but may have stuff that can be used in the garden. As its Easter. you might be visiting/seeing friends, I am hoping to pick up lots of plastic bottles as I use few of these at home.
Not sure if easter egg packaging can be used for anything?

BB

[taff]

You can use the plastic bread bags to collect stuff for the compost heap in the kitchen, nothing seeps out the bottom, then when you chuck it on the heap, re-use the bag for cat poo and stick it in the dog poo collection bins.

[Scottishnewbie]

Twinkle, that is awesome! What a brilliant idea. I'm going to force feed milk to the children from now on so I can do the same with our cartons!

The best i do with them is fill them with water and use them as 'stones' to hold fleece, net or watever in place. Then when I'm finished with them, i just pop down to the recycling centre. (the cartons that is, NOT the children!)

I also keep a few in the greehouse filled with water so that i can water tender seedlings with warmish water rather than freezing stuff out the hosepipe. Good for when there are hose pipe bans on i suppose too (not that we ever suffer from that is Scotland!).

[Twinkle]

from a post on here by 21again, about 2 litre plastic milk cartons, today we built a plant-rack for the polytunnel. Wood was some old batten or tile lath cut to fit through the handles.

If you cut around the carton just above the level of the label, you can also use the base as a plant pot.

Each line of "pots" lifts off for transplanting etc...