Upcycling eco friendly gardening

What is Garden Upcycling? 

Here are some cool 💡 ideas 

This is my upcycle from tins of baked beans I’ve now planted flowers inside .

Upcycled garden projects are all over sites like Etsy, Pinterest and others. Creative gardeners are eager to share their artistic approach to recycling in the garden. All it takes are a few interesting items and some crafting ingredients along with an interest in creating new forms of art work. We aren’t all artists, but with some guidance even the novice can fashion some fun and quirky statements for the landscape. Take an old, broken child’s bike, for instance. What can you do with it other than throw it away? You can paint it bright colors, install a planter or basket at the handle bars and park it amongst a wildflower garden. You can make a garden bench out of an old dresser or a planter out of a rusty toolbox. Such cast off items are now being viewed with new eyes. Instead of throwing items away, it is popular to consider them in a new light and add some paint, fabric, flowers, or any other items that peak your fancy. Many garden upcycling ideas start with items around the house and a need for something. All you need is a little imagination and a few additional decorating items and you are on your way. Garden Upcycling Ideas One of the biggest hits for garden upcycling has been the humble pallet. These wooden rafts are all over the place, discarded and unused. People have turned them into patios, planters, wall hangings, tables, benches, and many more items. Other common garbage that has been repurposed creatively may be: a toilet an old fashioned milk pail mason jars mismatched dishes utensils tires old nursery pots Decorated flower pots, sun catchers, personalized garden art and sculpture, and even crop markers are just some of the upcycled garden projects utilizing these items. Think past your nose and make a set of wind chimes out of old spoons or paint old nursery pots, nestle them together and plant strawberries out of a personalized planter. The ideas are just endless for upcycling in the garden. Upcycled Garden Containers For a gardener, one of the first projects to come to mind are upcycled garden containers. One of the cutest is made using an old bird cage with a spill of charming succulents in the bottom. In fact, succulents are ideal for interesting containers. Paint old tires vivid hues, stack them and fill with dirt. This vertical planting area can be used for a cascade of flowers or veggies. Use colanders to make hanging baskets or decorate an old dresser and plant in its drawers. Whimsical items take on even more charm when plants are installed in them. Children’s rain boots, shells, old tins, teapots, glassware, and more provide interesting planting options. Upside down wine bottles with their bottoms cut off and suspended with wire can grow viney plants or garden starts with an elegance seldom found in a finished bottle of Merlot. Dig around your basement or garage or scour yard sales to find objects that appeal to you. Then get out the paint, super glue, twine, glue gun and any other decorating tools you need and go to town. Upcycling in the garden is a fun, family project that let’s everyone put a special touch on your outdoor spaces.

Advantages to greenhouse growing

Biggest tips

The biggest advantage of a greenhouse is that it allows you to grow plants and crops that need more shelter and higher temperatures than are found in the open garden. Greenhouses are season-stretchers – earlier springs and later autumns. For summer food, think tomatoes, peppers, aubergines. In winter, they can be filled with hardy oriental greens. 

Sowing seeds, growing on plug plants, propagation, growing cut flowers and fresh food, and protecting plants on chilly spring nights are just some of the other advantages. It’ll also help you keep you (and your spirits) going in a tempestuous growing season. 

2 Sky’s the limit 

Buying a new greenhouse is the easy bit; deciding which one is harder. There are designs and styles to suit every taste and budget, from traditional to ultra-modern. Let a search engine do the legwork, but follow the golden rule: buy the biggest and best you can afford – you’ll never regret it. Cheap, flexible plastic greenhouses will just blow away in the wind.

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3 Pre-loved bargains 

If your budget’s non-existent, why not give a new home to an unloved greenhouse next door? Check local papers and websites for candidates; take photos of the existing structure before you loosen the first bolt. Mark existing glazing with tape/indelible pen, to help you piece the jigsaw back together. 

4 Walk in, or lean-to?

A free-standing greenhouse usually has four sides (or multiple in geodesic dome types), with a door at one or both ends, and can go in any suitable spot. A lean-to sits against a sunny wall or building, its roof sloping away from the wall. You simply reach into a small lean-to, or walk into a large one. 

5 Site in sunshine 

Finding the optimum spot for a greenhouse is vital. Sunlight, as much as possible, on all sides, is crucial. For a long and narrow structure, an east-west orientation as ideal, but if you can’t, don’t fret. Avoid going near structures casting shadows such as walls/fences/hedges/buildings, and keep out from under trees.

Tips and tricks

Tomatoes 🍅

Tomato plants love a head start on growth, so don’t be too late in starting them. This is particularly important for colder areas. Last spring frost date is used as a guideline for seed starting as well as planting them outdoors. Sow the seeds at least 8 weeks prior to the last frost date, especially if you have a short growing season. Those with long summers can wait until 6 weeks before the last frost date. It is a good idea to talk to other gardeners about timing too.

When you start the seed, the soil temperature in the seedling trays should be kept steady in the 70 F – 90 F range. Tomato plants love warmth. The seeds germinate faster and develop healthy root system in warm soil.  If you are not sowing the seeds in individual compartments, leave ½ inch distance between them.  When the baby plants start sprouting, provide strong light from a sunny window or use artificial lighting. Strong light is important since light-stressed seedlings grow thin and weak and become prone to diseases.

Although cotyledon leaves may appear in 1-2 weeks, it may take up to a month or more for true leaves to emerge. You can gently prick out the seedlings when they have a set of true leaves. Plant them in individual containers, burying them right up to the base of the cotyledon leaves. This helps them develop more roots and grow into sturdy seedlings. Maintain the seedlings at about 70F until they are ready to be hardened off prior to planting out in the garden.

Easy To Grow Bush Varieties

If you are new to growing tomatoes, it’s a good idea to start with an easy variety to grow.

The following bush/cherry varieties are highly recommended:

• Tumbler F1
• Terenzo F1 (Tumbler Ugrade)
• Tumbling Tom
• Red Alert
• Garden Pearl
• Maskotka
• Losetto 

Bush types are sometimes called “determinate” and do not need their side shoots pinched out.

Bush varieties grow well in containers and large pots so they can trail over the sides, or in an upside down planter such as a topsy turvy.

Trailing and Tumbler varieties include, Tumbling Tom – Red and Yellew, Tumbler F1 and Hundreds and Thousands to name just a few. These are also great for hanging baskets.

A big tip

Want to keep pests away? Plant an onion start — you can find them at well-stocked gardening stores — or some scallions on one side of your plant, and a little marigold on the other. Sounds strange, but Marigolds are a great way to help the plant also and it looks pretty too .

Update

hello everyone I’ve been doing a lot today I’ve been repotting my carrots outside and the cabbages are out at last.ive got my tomatoes in the greenhouse and the butternut squash.

The only trouble is the typical Shropshire uk weather 😲

Link to YouTube channel

https://youtu.be/UzoPzwbJ1NY

These are the carrots 🥕 I’ve grown from seed second time the first batch got to hot and dead 💀 so I’ve done them again put them straight into the green house and there coming on better.

So happy it’s working I’ll have two crops of different carrots 🥕 

These are the carrots 🥕 I got from the garden center today and put them in the wheelbarrow it’s so exciting to watch them grow this year is going to be so exciting.

Hello everyone I’m back and I’m know going to start blogging properly lol. So know here’s the fun but I’m gardening and we’re home growing our own fruit and vegetables we have been doing amazing turning this massive garden into our allotments and we are recycling big time we only use half a black bin in 2 weeks know and what we cannot use in the garden we recycle in our recycling bins please come along on adventure with us and stay tuned .