WWII Motto / Raised Bed Gardening Through Recycling

"Eat it up and wear it out. Make it do or do without."

I make things do in other ways when I can.  Recycling in the garden works for me!  It also helps with my "the ground has gotten really far away" problems. I cant "do without" raised beds. I just can't garden at ground level very effectively on crutches (can't get down there, or especially back up!), but I've learned there's a way around just about every problem.

Raised Garden Beds a la Recycle

Take an old refrigerator or freezer, remove the door, puncture or shoot holes in the back, remove any spare parts and drag by truck or tractor next to a fence or the area of your choosing. Add rocks or fill to the bottom 1/3 and top off with the best soil and compost you can get.

Add some transplants or seed with veggies you 'll eat. The squash transplants in the fridge behind this one looked great last year, and produced well. Everything is a little less waist  height and easy to plant and care for.

 Seeds finally germinate; waiting patiently is tough. Plants can be trained up a nearby fence when they're ready.

I realize you can sell some fridges/ freezers at scrap yards, but this is just too handy.

Folks have started bringing me their old "coolerators", so the garden expands.




Three more gardens are down at the shooting range being aerated for drainage. I need to paint the outsides with Rust-O-Leum this year, but I'd like to enclose the lines with fence pickets for a rustic look, eventually.

If someone gives you an old truck tire, that works also. A saws-all rids the tire of some of the sidewall for more planting space. This puppy's so big I can lean my backside against it for a rest.  I cant treally reach across it, either. Follow the same directions for filling a fridgie-planter.

I'm thinking of covering the tire this summer with some white cloth to bounce the sun back and keep the tire cooler.  During the winter, the black color soaks in sunlight and warms the plants within.

I love it when recycling makes my life easier. I love gardening and don't want to give it up.