Is anyone else turning into a Womble?

[Creemteez]

Since obtaining my new lottie, I have noticed a strange malaise has overtaken me! I am completely unable to throw anything away without first wieghing up its potential usefulness on the plot.
Loo roll innards, plastic mushroom and meat trays, water and pop bottles are all being squirreled away in the barn for future use.
My job in a bakery gives me access to unlimited brown paper sacks (weed suppressers?), plastic jam buckets, 25ltr veg oil canisters and catering sized fruit cans
My Wombling instincts have now turned to further horizons and I find myself waiting impatiently for Husband to get home so that I can check out what odments he has got left over from any jobs (Home maintenance and decorating). Yesterday he bought home a lovely lot of thick, foil backed insulation, which I intend to use as a base for my coldframe. Then today, my friend had to physically restrain me from dragging two pallets that had been washed up on the beach back with me.
I s'pose I just like the thought of getting use out of rubbish...and saving the old pennies as well, but I am thinking about renaming my home "The Burrow"!

[carlseawolf]

I just got some 2 "by 1" wood from a church roof to make a netting screen around on of my beds to cut down wind damage and pest control.

[Victoria26]

Oh I know exactly what you mean. I've even made little funnels out of the handle of milk cartons for my potted plants. Means that the water can go to the roots of my Courgettes/ tomatoes/ squash and strawberries.

Blue Peter eat yer heart out!!

[kernowyon]

its when you start moaning at the kids for not bringing the yoghurt pots back in their lunch boxes, then you know you have a problem.

[Twinkle]

Guilty here as well.

There's method in my madness though. Over here we have to pay a charge per bag of rubbish, plus a flat rate entrance fee to go to the recycling place - there's no bin collections where we live as it's too rural.
So given my natural tight-git tendencies, everything is recycled, usually again and again.

Plastic milk cartons as waterers, shovels, mini-cloches, polythene taped together as sheeting to cover plants, old carpets, cardboard and insulation as weed suppressant, old windows as coldframes, pallets as compost bins, tyres to grow spuds in (apart from the one we made into a swing for little 'un...)

We probably have 1 sack of actual rubbish per 3 months.

[Jardiniere]

yes i do it too...but it appears that no-one throws anything away around here - there are never any skip type things to forage in.....no second hand shops.....am getting excited because we have noticed our neighbours have two old pallets which we can use as a base for our outdoor wood pile....

[coreopsis]

Meat trays are great for windowsill propagators-easy,clean and no mess.Oh,and they are free
Last week I went to B&Q,they had some empty seed trays,made from a bit stronger stuff that is being sold.They let me take them-again,for free

[taff]

you are not alone...I can't pass a skip without looking and usually taking something, old freezer shelves for rabbit-proofing, metal bins for pots, etc etc.
And my loo-roll collection was truly useful, also the wood I took from work to make beds, and the pallets i pick up, I could go on, but you'd get bored eventually ;0
And since i've discovered that i can get tyres from the garage down the road, there'll be no stopping now.

[webby23]

same here, unfortunately OH just rolls his eyes and tuts a fair bit when I return from another successful forage

[Creemteez]

So glad I'm not alone! I've just noticed a big pile of pallets in a local field which look as if they are destined to be burned. Must find out who the farmer is and see if I can "rescue" some.
Husband came home this week with a huge double glazed window for the top of my cold frame. Now, if I can just get hold of some of the broken breeze blocks I saw on the building site opposite my plot....
What are the oddest items you have found a use for?

[matt]

hi im new. i go in every skip i see i just cant help myself.

[Eco-Chic]

My front garden looks like Steptoe's yard at the moment:
3 Pallets + 1 to collect tomorrow.
3 Rubble sacks of coop poop
4 fan shaped wire trellis
1 roll of rusty springs from a double bed + 2 single mattresses to be collected and gutted tomorrow.
1 Compost bin half full of compost to be collected tomorrow.

[Twinkle]

What are the oddest items you have found a use for?

my FIL was throwing out an electric pond-fountain as he'd lost the sprinkly top for it.
I thought "ooooo a submersible pump" and stuck it in my water butt, connected a hosepipe to the outlet and used it to pump water up into the polytunnel. Was pleasantly surprised at how efficiently it worked too - lot more pressure than I expected. Still have it in the shed awaiting another use...

[Beetroot Bob]

Same here !!!

Any skips are fair game. We've even taken to taking detours around industrial estates as they seem to have more profitable skips :-)

[Creemteez]

My front garden looks like Steptoe's yard at the moment:
3 Pallets + 1 to collect tomorrow.
3 Rubble sacks of coop poop
4 fan shaped wire trellis
1 roll of rusty springs from a double bed + 2 single mattresses to be collected and gutted tomorrow.
1 Compost bin half full of compost to be collected tomorrow.

I'm curious as to know what you propose to do with the bed springs!!!Climbing frame for peas?What has been your best "find", everyone?