I have decided to recycle this post from a couple of years back for 2 reasons - 1) Lack of actual gardening at the moment and 2) It's that time of year when we're sowing seeds like mad so a space saver comes in real handy.
Recycling old posts is not something I tend to do as the garden is forever changing but I felt there are certain projects that never age and hopefully this may solve the issue of space for a few people. The original photo of this project (included below) has done it's rounds on Pinterest but credit rarely goes back to the original source but I have no problems with people pinning and sharing this - enjoy!
Gardening
here in the Scottish Highlands is unlike any kind of gardening I
experienced at home in England and I initially made so many mistakes
and lost so many plants due to my stubborness and naive determination to
continue growing the plants I loved rather than discovering what would
actually work here.
It was during those years of frustration that I
sulked a tad where the gardening was concerned and turned my attention
to building containers, obelisks and arbours from scrapwood - it kind of
made me feel like I was achieving something despite having obliterated
all my lovely plants. Plus containers meant I could move plants around
according to the weather conditions.
That's the time I came up
with this space saver idea. I needed something that would make use of
height in my greenhouse and free up some space and at the same time it
needed to be light enough to carry in and out as I needed.
This is the space saver:
It
was really easy to make too with limited skills and tools and used
only scrap wood and plastic milk cartons I saved. I made this one in
half a day but it could take even less time if you organise your tools
and materials beforehand which I don't tend to do!
So tools and materials needed:
- Scrap wood. Any scrap wood can be used and adapted but I used batten, 3"x2" and plyboard.
- Wood to use as the milk container supports - I used 1.5"x 1/4" beading.
- Screws and/or nails.
- Hand saw or electric cutter.
- Tape measure (always handy but I hardly ever use them)
- Stain for protecting. I used Cuprinol garden shades Natural Stone.
- Plastic milk cartons. I used 30 on mine but you can make the frame and add the cartons as you collect them.
The first stage is to make a rectangle frame using
battens (or your chosen wood) and then add corner supports to the top of
the frame only. (I didn't have any particular size of frame in mind I
simply made it up as I went along - that's how I roll).
Once we have the frame done we need to attach some feet to support it. I used batten and 3"x2" for mine.
Once the batten is cut screw or nail it to the bottom of the frame like this:
Once
those are attached to each side of the base end stand the frame up and
cut 2 more pieces slightly larger from 3x2, or whatever wood you have.
These are then screwed or nailed to the existing feet from the top down
like this:
You
can also see from the above photo that I then screwed the rectangle
frame down into the first foot that was attached, this is just for extra
stability.
Next we need to make some supports for the lengths of wood that will hold the milk containers.
I
used plyboard for this as it was all I had suitable that was lying
around. I basically cut 6 rectangles (3 for each side) and each
rectangle had 2 grooves cut out of it from the top of the longer side to
roughly half way through. These cuts need to be a suitable depth to
hold whatever wood you are using for the container supports like this:
Once
all the rectangles are cut and grooved they simply need attaching to
the sides of the frame - I just spaced mine at equalish distances.
Once
this is a completed it's just a simple case of cutting 6 lengths of
wood for the container supports (I used thin beading) making sure the
lengths are cut long enough to extend further than the supports at each
end.
Finally
give it all a coat of protective paint and start filling it with your
pots by simply sliding the container supports through the handles of
your milk containers.
This space saver is ideal for veggie
seedlings being hardened off because you simply lift it and place it
outside in the morning and then bring it back in at night, there's no
bending and schlepping around with plastic pot holders that always tend
to split and crumble right when you don't need them to.
It's also
fabulous for rooted flower cuttings that need similar hardening off
treatment and if you use the containers for herbs it can be easily
placed against a warm wall right near the house.
OR if you're a
crafter like myself it would be fabulous for holding crafting goodies
such as pens, paints, ribbons, stamps etc etc.
Pretty versatile huh!
Now lets talk about those milk containers and how you can use pretty much all of the container as useful garden helpers.
First
off take one of the plastic milk caontainers you've collected - all
sizes are good but I personally would find the 2 pinters too small for
this project but the bigger the container the bigger size pot it will
hold. I used 4 pinters and 6 pinters.
OK so we need to pierce the
side of the container with scissors (leave the lid on to keep the air in
otherwise the container will simply collapse) and then cut right round
the container so you get this:
The top part with the lid is all finished and ready for your newly built space saver.
Personally
I try to leave the lids on the containers that will go on the top 2
layers of the space saver to stop any water draining into the layer
below. The bottom layer of the space saver doesn't matter so much.
Now
we're left with the bottom half of the container we cut so take your
scissors and cut down the length of the container stopping where you see
the next rigid line that goes all the way round the container. Turn at
this point and cut round the circumference once again until it seperates
from the bottom of the container, then take this middle section and cut
straight down the middle of it to produce this:
Now
all you need to do is use the middle section to cut strips off at
whatever width you would like your plant labels to be. Once you've done
this you then cut points onto one end of the cut strips and use the
container base to store them.
See, the whole container has a use - yay!
Here you can see the strips before having the points cut and then the pot contains some where the points have been cut.
I
hope this tutorial made sense to you all and that you can replicate it
in some way for your home and garden, I would love to hear from anyone
that has made it for themselves.
