Think about all the things we throw away day to day. Broken items off to the landfill… But WAIT! often times things that cant be recycled can be reused. Saving you money, and a dump run.
We wanted to share some ways that we’ve repurposed broken items around the nursery
To some a rusty, old wheel barrel. To us a beautiful, spacious, raised garden bed!
Step 1
If the tire is flattened, make placing the wheel barrel where you’ll want it your first step. This will make life a little easier- it may be difficult to move with all your fixings inside.
Step 2
If there are rust wholes in your wheel barrel, great! These will make for great drainage wholes. If the wholes are big enough for your soil to fall threw, you’ll need to find a way to screen these wholes, so primarily only water is being drained. There is many ways to do this. Find or purchase a fine screen, cut to size, and place over the wholes from the inside of your wheel barrel. Again we want to emphasize reusing! Look around your house for anything that could mimic the screen: cheese cloth, a fine strainer, loosely knit material. Get creative!
If there are no wholes in your wheel barrel great again! That means the holes you create for drainage can be the made to the appropriate size, and therefore for will not have to be screened. Find a nail with a small diameter and a hammer. Flip your wheel barrel bottom side up and hammer in the nail from outside to inside. This way the jagged ends created will be hidden under the soil. It will also help the reduce the failing of the soil threw the holes. Start from the middle, and evenly space about 10 wholes throughout the bottom. Make sure to make whole close to the outermost points of the bottom of the barrel for proper drainage. And BAM! (Literally) your wheel barrel planter now has proper drainage.
Step 3
Time to add soil! Different varieties of plants need different types of soils to thrive. Read up on what type of soil is proper for your plant. For our wheel barrel planter we created a succulent arrangement. We used nutrient dense, porous soil, because that’s what succulents love and we love or succulents!
Step 4
Once your barrel is filled with the proper soil for your plants, it’s time to transplant them into their new homes! Place them (still in their pots) throughout the barrel positioning and repositioning them to exactly where you want them(see image below). Once you’ve found the prefect place for all of them, dig wholes, gently remove them from their current pots, place them in the whole you’ve made for them (making sure the base of the plant is level to the soil), and loosely fill in any places missing soil. Finally give one gentle pat around your plant to set it in place. Repeat with all plants you plan to add. Make sure to water thoroughly after transplanting to ensure a healthy transition for your plants!
Aaanddd.. WA LA! There you have it!
You’ve created a beautiful, raised garden bed from a repurposed wheel barrel.
3rd Day Nursery 