By LISA BURNS Special to Live Local! magazine

M any household and everyday items can be re-purposed into decorative garden art. Take a look at Pinterest

or Hometalk and you will find ideas from head-board benches and washing machine tub fire pits to tire planters and clay pot scarecrows. The pos-sibilities are limited only by your imagination.

But what you might not know is there are hundreds of small items you use every day that can be re-purposed into useful tools for your gar-den. Here are a few tricks using items you may already have in your home:

• Place a layer of newspaper or cardboard in your garden beds before planting to keep the weeds out, then cover with pinecones or pine needles as mulch/bedding.

• Cardboard egg cartons and toilet paper roll-ers are perfect for starting seed indoors. The car-ton or roller can be transplanted directly in the ground and it will biodegrade.

• Do you enjoy a good camp fire? Fill a toilet pa-per roller with dryer lint and use as a fire starter. A mason jar with a bit of sandpaper glued to the top works great to store your matches.

• Milk jugs make great watering cans. Just punc-ture a few holes in the lid. Need a scooper in a pinch? Cut out the handle of a ½ gallon milk jug along with a portion of the side of the jug shaped

like a shovel and you have a quick gar-den scoop.

• For pots with holes use a cof-fee filter or packing peanuts

to keep the dirt in and help with drainage. For plants that need constant mois-ture place an unused diaper in the bottom of the pot. The diaper has the same absorbing beads in it that are sold in the nursery.

Repurposed for the garden

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• Rain barrels, earth-boxes and compost bins can all be made from Rubbermaid totes.

• Pantyhose cut into strips or hair clips work as garden ties to keep your tomato plants on the trellis.

• Cut the bottom off of a plastic water or soda bottle to create a funnel or along with cutting the bottom off, poke it full of holes and plant it upside down in a pot for an easy watering port.

• To keep your finger nails clean when garden-ing run your nails over a bar of soap to keep the dirt out, better yet, use dishwashing gloves when planting they are water proof.

• CDs or DVDs hung from the trees as reflec-tors will keep animals from your veggies or egrets away from your pond fish.

• Glass bottles create a fun and colorful garden border while several curtain rods with finials at-tached will become an inexpensive and decora-tive hose guard.

• When planting a garden from seed you will need to use garden markers to remember what you planted. Instead of buying premade markers, cut a vinyl mini blind or milk jug into 1” strips and write the plant name on the strip using permanent marker. Other alternatives include tin can lids, used wooden spoons or glue the actual seed packet to a Popsicle stick. To keep track of the flowers in your garden punch a hole in the plant tags that come from the nursery and place on a key ring.

• Any container that will hold dirt or water such as milk jugs, coffee cans, mason jars, 5-gal-lon buckets and whiskey barrels can be used as a planter or a garden pond.

Lisa Burns is co-founder of Backyard Getaway, a landscaping company in Myakka City. She can be reached through her website, BackyardGetaway.net.

Win it!For a chance to win a vertical gardenvalued at $100, go to LiveLocalTampaBay.com.

A fun way to brighten your space is with a verti-cal garden! Dave Burns, co-owner of Backyard Getaaway in Myakka City, graba a pallet and a

tape measure and shares with us step-by-step instruc-tions for a pallet garden. No power tools required!

TOOLS & MATERIALSPalletLandscape fabric (weed cloth)Garden soilPlants Paint (optional)Staples and staplerTape measureHammer and nails (1½”)Crow bar Screw gun and 1½” wood screws (optional)Sawzall (optional)

STEP-BY-STEP INSTRUCTIONSPaint your pallet and let it dry. If you’re plan-ting veggies or prefer rustic look, no need to paint. Measure pallet length and width.Cut the weed cloth to fit the width & length of back of the pallet adding 2 inches to the width and 6 inches to the length so you can fold the edges under at the sides and top and to cover the bottom openingStaple weed cloth to top slat and side supports of back, folding cloth under to give a clean edge. Wrap the shade cloth over bottom of pallet to front bottom edge folding as you did the sides and top and staple in place.Lay the pallet on the ground, fill with garden soil or potting mix, compacting soil as you go. This will take two to four bags of soil, depending on size of the palletPlant your plants in the garden soil between slats on front of the pallet. Keep pallet flat on the ground for two weeks, watering daily the first week and every other day the second week. At that time it should be rooted enough to stand up. If you’re planting a veggie garden, you will not stand the pallet up.

PHOTO BY LISA BURNS, BACKYARD GETAWAY

PLANTING UP

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