The tools you use in the kitchen can also be very helpful in the garden. Before you throw away those old kitchen utensils and gadgets, try to repurpose them in your garden.
Knives cut through small stems and branches. They also make quick work of tangled trellis ties or old string from last year's supports. Spoons and forks make great tools to lift seedlings for transplant. My favorite is to bend the ends of the old silverware and string the pieces up into a wind chime.
Old colanders become rusty or cracked, but they still have a purpose. Use the colander to gather your vegetables from the garden and rinse them before bringing them into the house. The water runs through, taking the dirt and debris with it. This saves your sink drains from getting all that nasty dirt.
Large stock pots, after years of faithful service, often develop holes in the bottom. Throw these pots over by your planting table. Use the containers to mix up your favorite soil mixes for your hanging baskets or other flower pots. Those pans with missing handles are great for catching rain water. Set a few here and there around the garden and use that old ladle to water your plants.
A coat of spray paint turns any bowl or container into an instant flower pot. Add a little pea gravel to the bottom of the container and fill with a good potting soil. Plant away. The round shape of old bowls makes them perfect for use in plant hangers.
I go through wooden spoons like crazy. Either they chip or the handle breaks and the spoon is too short to use in the kitchen. Use them as plant markers, instead. Write the plant information on the wide surface of the utensil. Dip the whole utensil in an acrylic sealer. Let it dry and these guys will mark your plants for several years to come.
Before you throw out anything, even a drawer, consider what other useful purpose the item may serve. Even an old drawer works as a small herb box. You never know what cool uses you will come up with in the garden.
Happy Gardening!
Been browsing your lists, you sound like me. I get funny looks sometime for using things for purposes other than their intended use.
I love these ideas for gifts for the garden. H5.
H5 on the kitchen gadgets for the garden.
Same here! Every time we run out of serving spoons, the kids blame me! lol
LOL ... I've been digging in the dirt with kitchen utensils since I was a little girl. Just last week I could not find a spade, and used a kitchen spoon ... my husband was very puzzled when he found it in the yard but should not have been, lol! High five!
select one here...