Friday, January 6, 2012

Stop that or you'll go Blind!

I've found Mini blinds - the little slatted things that normally hang in a window, go up and down, and tilt to control the light - have quite a few repurposed uses in the garden. They're easy to find curbside on trash day, sometimes in the free box at garage sales or inexpensive at resale stores - definitely pick up a window or two's worth - and bargain for them because they generally don't sell well.
When you get them home stretch them out as long as they will go , cut the strings at one end and harvest the string for garden twine. It's amazing stuff and you won't believe how much there is!

Now that the string is out, the slats just fall off! Bundle them up, put a rubber band around them and save for a variety of garden uses.

Here are some of the best I've found:

Plant markers:. Cut the slats to whatever length you want - short for seedlings of short plants like radishes, tall for taller plants like bush type beans. After things have grown a bit have you ever searched way down at the soil level for those cute short little plant markers you put in when you planted seeds... this year make tall ones! They're curved so they stand up well. They're sunlight resistant - they were meant to live in the sun. They're easily written on with a Sharpie. Use colored Sharpies with little pictures or smileys, plant name and variety, plant date, days to harvest, or other notes to yourself.

Garden Staples: Fold a section of slat into a "U" and use them to hold down your soaker hose or cut a slit in your plastic mulch and staple it down. , Make and use as many as you need. They don't rust and they're Free!

Row or Square foot Gardening Markers: This past year I put in 3 square foot garden beds following Mel Bartholomew's Square Foot Gardening method. The amount and quality of the produce I got far exceeded expectations! But, as Mel says - It's not a square foot garden unless the squares are marked off. Blind slats to the rescue! I used full lengths and taped a few together to get the lengths I needed. They were in great shape at the end of the growing season - I'll probably even use some of them again.

Reuse/Recycle/Repurposing at it's best!

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