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

[marchogaeth]

I have tried getting bottoms off tins, but the can opener just doesnt do it. How do you get the bottoms off the cans?

I manage with an ordinary can opener, maybe you just need a different make. Is it because the lip on the bottom is too deep for your opener?

The only other options I can think of would be one of the old fashioned "up and down" (Girl/boy guide/scout) sort but that'll obviously leave a really rough edge or one of the ones that makes a lid by actually cutting through the side of the can.

[weekendwellies]

I manage with an ordinary can opener, maybe you just need a different make. Is it because the lip on the bottom is too deep for your opener?

The only other options I can think of would be one of the old fashioned "up and down" (Girl/boy guide/scout) sort but that'll obviously leave a really rough edge or one of the ones that makes a lid by actually cutting through the side of the can.

Yep, I have the ones that you sort of clamp together in a scissor action on the lip of the can, and then twist the noddle thing and it works its way around the edge of the can opening it. I have one that goes round the side and one that goes around the top which keeps hold of the lid making it easier to drop in the bin without getting the contents all over your fingers.
Neither one will get the bottoms off the cans as the bottoms are more rounded and have nothing to grip onto.
I dont have an up/down type any more. I used to cut myself with that type too much.

[The Masons]

*Hubby had used to death his shower scrunchie, Pom Pom washy thingy(sorry not sure what everyone else calls them) Saved it from the bin, cut up and opened out and will now use it as netting over some of the smaller veg beds to stop the local kitty's using them as toilet stops.

*Had to replace the family tent so kept the poles and pegs and now using them as tunnels over the veg.

[Polytastic]

Seed / Propogattion Containers

This year I started almost all of my salad and veg. off in cardboard boxes from the supermarket. One of my local supermarkets let me have loads of them for free as they were only throwing them out anyway. I used them for pretty much everything that I have grown with a little old plastic sheeting in the bottom (though a large plastic bag would serve too) The only trouble I had was that I had to slide some of the boxes as they began to fall apart after I had brought them outside to harden off the caulli plants. Using this method again next year as it is cheap and easy to replace.

The other things I used were the plastic pots that mushrooms / grapes come in (grape containers already have holes for drainage too!) and even egg boxes and yoghurt pots until the seedlings were bigger and needed larger pots or the cardboard boxes! But perhaps the most simple thing I used for things like tomato plants and peppers were the trays that some tomatoes can be bought on in supermarkets - like an egg box material. If you use these cannily you can simply plant them as they are - complete into the ground.

I was also very impressed with toilet roll holders as a simple and mainly effective way of keeping the plug plant you have begun together.

Next year I am considering cutting the necks off of wide necked bottles and using them as a 'necklace' for the tomato plants in my green house. This will mean I can water/ feed them sep. to the rest of the stuff which I grow in between.

Hope these ideas help somebody else who is financially challenged too

[Scarlet]

Hi Polytastic and welcome to the vine.

I think you would be interested in this thread - have a look!
http://www.growfruitandveg.co.uk/gra...ead_30193.html

[Bren In Pots]

Hello and welcome to the vine Polytastic, I start my plants of in either loo rolls or newspaper pots, then the toms I'm giving away they get potted on into milk cartons.
Like you say every bit helps.

[Polytastic]

So sorry to have posted this in the wrong place. I have found these methods out for myself with an elderly friend and until this year neither of us had used them all as we did this year. Felt pleased with myself but reading the thread postings I realise there really is nothing new under the sun after all - sorry guys for creating a new thread for the same thing.

[Bren In Pots]

Its OK Polytastic the mods are good at moving and merging threads

[veggiechicken]

Hi Polytastic. Its the tips you find out for yourself that are the most worthwhile. Thanks for sharing them!!

[inearlygaveup]

Yep, I have the ones that you sort of clamp together in a scissor action on the lip of the can, and then twist the noddle thing and it works its way around the edge of the can opening it. I have one that goes round the side and one that goes around the top which keeps hold of the lid making it easier to drop in the bin without getting the contents all over your fingers.
Neither one will get the bottoms off the cans as the bottoms are more rounded and have nothing to grip onto.
I dont have an up/down type any more. I used to cut myself with that type too much.

Some cans don't have bottom edge's to clamp onto.......

[MrsCordial]

My veg patch looks like I'm growing a lovely crop of plastic bottles. We get our milk from a milkman, in glass bottles, but we acquire various plastic bottles and my parents save theirs for us. I cut the base off then use them as incubators over seedlings. The cap is on loosely, for ventilation. I'm terrible at forgetting where I've planted things (I've pulled up two mini leeks by accident recently, grr) so these plastic covers are saving me from myself.

I put loo roll inners and the odd scrumpled newspaper sheet in the compost, and will be saving them for seedlings from the autumn. I reuse lots and thought I was doing well, but this thread has shown me I'm very much a beginner!

[treamber]

I needed to cover my sprouts today but i had no netting or any thing to make a frame with so on my way out to the garden i spotted my large dog cage in the garage and knew i had hit on the ideal solution so after a bit of handy work with pliers i had taken the top off turned it upside down over the sprouts and fitted an old net curtain to it,problem solved until the dog wants his cage back.

[Polytastic]

Excellent idea. I covered mine with net curtains and pegs to hold the curtains together - drawn lol. The netting I tried on the caulli's wasn't enough to keep cabbage white butterfly out so I'm trying harder now and nets seem to be the cheapest way forward. Anyone have any idea how to stop them looking like a miss matched junk yard?

[Guykp57]

Got my netting from Amazon last week 3x6'x1metre for £10 including postage..far cheaper then butterfly netting and more versatile. Then used old Gazebo rods with ping pong balls on top to save netting ripping.Butterflies trying their best but can't get through... Ha .

[Polytastic]

I think I have mutant clever cabbage white butterfly .. They get through the netting I bought especially for the caulli''s sprouts and only seem deterred by the net curtains I can't acquire enough and they don't look as smart as the rest of the patch but whatever works huh. Any ideas on the best way to get them green rather than a crummy off white colour?