Recycling in the Garden

Being green in the garden can go beyond plants. Home gardeners can not only find used or environmentally friendly landscaping materials, but can also create their own from some non-traditional sources. This can often be cheaper, and it keeps waste out of landfills. Check the ideas below and look with a new eye at some of your own home items.

Concrete

Broken concrete is often leftover from construction and development. Improvise “stone” retainer walls with the broken side of the concrete on the outside. Over time, weather and watering will make the concrete look like real rock. Edge flower beds or create walkways or patios. Fill in between the pieces with sand for a mosaic effect.

Carpet

Lay down carpet over an area for a new garden bed and let it sit for several weeks. Afterwards, the grass underneath will be decomposed, making for easy digging. Use carpet for pathways and top with mulch or stone. Make sure you use woven and not rubber backed carpet.

CDs

Scratched CDs can become coasters for potted plants, candles, or other objects that can stain your deck or patio furniture. Discourage wildlife foraging by threading CDs with jute or fishing line and hanging them in your garden. Turn CDs into reflective mobiles or wind chimes using wire, hooks, and fishing line.

Styrofoam Peanuts

Use them in the bottom of potted plants. First put in a chard or dryer sheet then a layer of peanuts. Add potting soil, then your plants. This will help reduce the weight of big planters. Larger foam pieces can be broken up as well and used as space fillers in larger pots or as bases for raised garden beds.

Plastic Bottles and Containers

Cut the bottom of gallon jugs and place over seedlings and young plants to protect them from cold (but take off during the day to keep plants from overheating). Turn them into funnels or scoops for garden amendments. Make a bird feeder by making cutouts with cross dowels for perches on the side of the bottle (keep the lid on to keep seed dry).

Newspaper Bags

Once you’ve laid down the newspaper as a weed blocking mulch in the garden, use the bag as a plant hanger. Double or triple the bags and fill them with soil. Knot it closed and lay flat. Cut "X"s in the sides to plant small plants or herbs. Keep it flat for a week till the root system is established then put in a few small drainage holes and hang it up.

Rainwater

Collect rainwater to use in drier periods for your garden, houseplants, or mixing with garden amendments. Set barrels or large drums under downspouts, or just out in the garden. If you do not have room or access to larger containers, use a small pail or any other container you have. Put a screen over the tops to ward off mosquitoes.

Miscellaneous

Put dryer sheets in the bottom of flower pots to keep soil from coming out of the drainage holes. Cut up snagged pantyhose for ties for vines and tomatoes. Cut up discarded mini blinds into six to eight inch lengths for plant id tags.

Look around your home to see what other items you might be able to use in your garden. Do not forget that items can also be used for yard art: cans and old dishes as planters, utensils as markers and wind chimes, tree branches and trunks as sculptures, bed sets turned into benches (headboard as the back and footboard cut in half for arms). Recycling is a good way to bring out your creative side and build a uniquely beautiful garden area.

Adapted and excerpted from:

“Recycling in the Garden,” The Green Thumb Script Booklets, St. Lucie County Extension.

“Garden Trash to Treasures,” St. Lucie County Extension (accessed 07/2011).

Using bottles to edge a garden path

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