One of my favorite things to do is seek out old things at flea markets, resale shops, yard sales, wherever I can find them. Well-made, vintage or antique items — sometimes the kind of odd little thing no one can imagine finding a use for. I like to take them and MAKE a use for them.
Upcycling, recycling, repurposing, or just being green, whatever you might like to call it, I enjoy taking something old and unused and turning it into something beautiful, useful, new. A lot of these will properly fit into other categories, since most of the things I make will be for the animals, or the garden, or to decorate my home, but I will post the pictures here and a link to the instructions there.
In the meantime, here are our blog posts about Trash to Treasure.
thanks for share!
You’re welcome!
Wasn’t srue where I can ask, what about worms? I hear they compost stuff faster and better. I have the chicken coop I clean out the manure, and the worms in the garden can turn it faster so the plants can eat it? Don’t the worms make it safe to put the chicken coop shovelings out there? I have a lot of worms in the garden so I think the soil is pretty good, not dead soil.
Hi Mark, Worms are great, and I hope to be adding a section on that. I have natural worm beds under my rabbit cages for their manure (which doesn’t have to be composted, but it doesn’t hurt) and I have bins of worms for composting kitchen stuff. The chickens turn the outside compost pile (I put it in the chicken yard for that reason). But the stuff in the coop is “hot” … it has to compost some time (generally months) before it’s safe to put in the garden. I use the deep litter method, so I probably actually have a good 6 inches of compost in the floor of my coop, but I still let it set when I take it out since I’m sure there’s plenty of fresh poo in there too. Worms are great, but I still wouldn’t put the chicken manure on the garden fresh. What I do often do is clean the coop when the garden is “resting” so I can move it straight out there, and it’s composted by the time I plant a few months later.
time yes in a composting emoervnnint worms can accelerate the composting time of chicken and other manures. But Chicken manure is still a hot manure and it can not be used with out burning plants and roots until first composted no matter how many worms are in your beds. About the only common manure I know of that you can use with out any real composting first is rabbit manure. Though it is also good in a compost pile.
Yes, good point, chicken manure must absolutely be composted first! Rabbit, llama, and goat are all “cold” manures which can be put directly in the garden though (and there may very well be others, my guess would be that sheep manure is as well, but I haven’t checked into it since I don’t raise sheep). I usually do compost all my manures anyway though, but if I add them to the garden before they are fully composted, or if I need a top-dressing, I don’t have to worry about it when I use rabbit, goat, or llama. I have PLENTY of all those, so the chicken manure gets to sit a nice long time before I use it.
Mark,also worms have a tendency to nuetralize the PHof a soil. that is why the more that you have the better your soil will become. Worms are the best sign of living soil.The most important thing to remember is that you must keep on adding organic matter to your soilevery hear. within a few year.. it will be all gone. You might be able to find a guy on the internet who did garbage bag gardening. He had a mixture of good stuff which he stuffed intogarbage bags. but he always included earthworms.they work 24 seven.
Love your blog, but would like more articles on this. Upcycle, Repurpose, Trash to Treasure, very popular topics with the interest in saving the planet, and you can’t beat free or cheap materials! More please!