There are lots of opportunities for DIY in a garden. Sure, growing your own veggies and flowers is already firmly inside in the “do it yourself” realm, but we can create more than just plants for a garden. We can find ways to reduce our waste and save some money on purchasing new items when we find ways to rework what we already have.
Up-cycled Yard Art.
This year I started looking more creatively at some odd items I have in the shed. The potato tire growing experiment did not work as well as I had hoped. We got a few potatoes but not enough to justify the time, space, and seed. We also had some old metal items that were just rusting away. I decided to repurpose these into some low-cost decorations and planters. For the cost of three cans of spray paint and some metal wall art, I now have two upcycled decorations in the garden. The paint color choices were totally a last-minute decision. Once I got to the hardware store, I saw Rustoleum has a line of farm equipment colors. That was too perfect to pass up! I grabbed the Troy-Bilt Red, John Deere Yellow, and the Husqvarna orange.
To add a more interest I purchased some metal garden are and attached them with metal wire.
Up-cycled Yard Art.
This year I started looking more creatively at some odd items I have in the shed. The potato tire growing experiment did not work as well as I had hoped. We got a few potatoes but not enough to justify the time, space, and seed. We also had some old metal items that were just rusting away. I decided to repurpose these into some low-cost decorations and planters. For the cost of three cans of spray paint and some metal wall art, I now have two upcycled decorations in the garden. The paint color choices were totally a last-minute decision. Once I got to the hardware store, I saw Rustoleum has a line of farm equipment colors. That was too perfect to pass up! I grabbed the Troy-Bilt Red, John Deere Yellow, and the Husqvarna orange.
To add a more interest I purchased some metal garden are and attached them with metal wire.
This is purchases metal wall art attached to a painted hand truck with two painted tires as a planter.
The "Garden" sign is purchased wall art painted with the Troy-Bilt red spray paint.
Greenhouse Curtains
The greenhouse has gotten a much-needed improvement as well. A greenhouse is very useful in early spring and fall because it does a great job of capturing and keeping heat. But during the summer it becomes a problem as it is way to hot inside. Like a car with the windows up, I would consider it unsafe to stay inside for long on a warm day. Getting supplies from the greenhouse during a warm summer day is literally a run in and run back out trip. The plants cannot be kept in the greenhouse from early to late summer since they get overheated and dry out.
When considering what to do about this I realized that all it needed some shade. I already had some old table cloths that were stained and worn. I bought some grommets and a grommet set and converted the old table cloths to new curtains. We simply hung them with P-Cord through the grommets and one extra to hold up the middle. They can be opened and closed by sliding them across the P-Cord. This has reduced the heat build up considerably.
The greenhouse has gotten a much-needed improvement as well. A greenhouse is very useful in early spring and fall because it does a great job of capturing and keeping heat. But during the summer it becomes a problem as it is way to hot inside. Like a car with the windows up, I would consider it unsafe to stay inside for long on a warm day. Getting supplies from the greenhouse during a warm summer day is literally a run in and run back out trip. The plants cannot be kept in the greenhouse from early to late summer since they get overheated and dry out.
When considering what to do about this I realized that all it needed some shade. I already had some old table cloths that were stained and worn. I bought some grommets and a grommet set and converted the old table cloths to new curtains. We simply hung them with P-Cord through the grommets and one extra to hold up the middle. They can be opened and closed by sliding them across the P-Cord. This has reduced the heat build up considerably.
These are the grommets set into the tablecloths.
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