Grow Your Own needs your help!

[Scottishnewbie]

I used an old shoe rack for growing dwarf french beans up and through - really easy to pick them as a result

[HeyWayne]

I've got old divan bed frames (card and material removed) - they are used as both cold frames and netted frames - depending on the time of year.

I have made a bench from pallets.

Raised beds made from large bearer beams.

Scrap Kwikastrip (registered trademark) casings cut, bent and used as raised bed edges.

Loo roll centres as root trainers.

Vending cups as plant pots.

Polystyrene packaging broken up and used as pot drainage.

Any clear plastic packaging is saved and used wherever possible to act as "glazing" for several things.

Small drinks bottles as cane toppers.

Larger drinks bottles (bottoms cut off) used as mini cloches placed over a cane.

Ash prunings used as canes.

Old tights used to store onions.

What you can recycle really depends on your imagination - there are almost no limits, but be careful it can become adictive, and you can end up hoarding stuff "just in case".

[Geordie]

I use discarded metal bicycle wheels to tie the tops of my cane wigwams to, it seems to work better than tying them together.

[SMT]

A broken coat hanger can be split in half to make 2 'U' or 'V' shaped pegs for training marrows and pumpkin vines etc. Just stops the wind picking the vines up and snapping them.

[smallblueplanet]

...& have made a decorative mosaic on an old satellite dish...

That's fab Sue, I wish I was that creative.

[ginger ninger]

I use my old voile as cover to keep butterfly's of my veg.
Plastic fruit cartons as seed trays.
The net off the cartons I use to support melons in the green house'.
Old lolly pop sticks as labels for my veg.
Plastic milk bottle tops for crock (you can wash them and reuse)
Plastic bottles of all sizes as cloches
The bottoms of the bottles as drip trays for under my small pots
A pair of old wellies for mint.
Wooden barbecue sticks to deter cat's from pooing in my garden.
Potty with my spring onions in it.
An old sieve for fine dusting of compost onto seeds
2 litre bottles with holes drilled in the tops for watering my seedlings.

[WeeGarden]

Sainsburys do yummy whole cakes in the chiller aisle. It comes in a circular black plastic tray with clear cover. You can use the thing as a covered propogator, or the lid itself fits a 27cm(? need to check) terracotta pot beautifully, to ward off the autumn chill. I have one on my pot of spinach and the seedlings came up much faster than non covered pot.

Not suggesting that you go and buy a £5 cake for the tray, but if, like me, you catch it special offer for half price, it's well worth it.

I'm going to use an old string hammock for training squash along a fence. I have a very small garden so vertical growing = fab.

[bubblewrap]

An old children's sand pit as a pond.
Last week I weeded my onions (3 beds 460 onions) with a dessert fork.
A steel pan scourer to clean tools after getting worse of mud off(I then give a coat of WD40.

[catgardener]

I use wooded spoons as plant markers. They are easier to see than the small white plastic labels.
Strange looks asking shop to order 50 wooden spoons!

[Brengirl]

I've strung a a wall trough at the bottom of the waterfall. Planted offcuts of watercress and now have enough to pick.

[northepaul]

I have just cleaned up an old double sink which I intend to plant carrots in next year - I have this bad habit of looking out for people with skips in their garden/driveway and thinking...umm wonder if I could use...
I am on the look out for some planks (cupboard sides...old bookcases lade of MDF, not fussey as I can always decorate them) to build raised beds - my neighbour uses toilets to plant various things, including peas!!

[Ladybird2618]

My dad has just delivered two sinks to my allotment but not quite sure what I'm going to do with them yet.
Couldn't bear them going to the tip.
Any ideas anyone?

[weekendwellies]

@ ladybird , are they the old Belfast sinks, or modern steel ones? - strawberries, mint, bamboo, bog garden, wildlife pond

[Ladybird2618]

Sorry not been on this thread for a while.
They are normal bathroom sinks - wish they were belfast!!!
Back to work tomorrow boohoo.
No chance to get down the lottie as weather so awful. Still mostly frozen in our little corner of the world.

[miffy]

Son needed a new bed this year.

Single bed no longer big enough.

We stripped the bed base down.

Used the springs on it between supports to make a climbing frame for cucumbers.

The wooden frame we used as was as a raised bed! Looks fab

I have also got an old metal head board and foot board being utilised as a growing frame.

I also recycle/reuse the usual plastic pop and milk bottles, pots etc for growing pots, and seedlings.