DIY Trending Projects: Your Garbage is Precious

If you are a neat freak like many people, anything that hasn't been used in a few weeks is out of the house. For instance, if you like a clutter free home but married to a pack rat, their stash of junk behind the garage likely drives you nuts (if you happen to go back there and look). 

However, this can easily be vindicated when many of the materials become big summer projects, saving significant money while recycling at the same time. 

Savvy gardeners have amazing repurposed and recycled DIY garden ideas. Some of these are available online and here are some possible ideas to try: 

• Birch tree cuttings hollowed out make excellent candle holders or planters. 

• Build a rain barrel out of a garbage can and lid, some hose and a purchased water spigot. 

• Use broken crockery and some quick set cement to make beautiful paving stones. 

• Add labels to found or old silverware with the names of your crops and use them as markers. 

• Upend old bottles on stakes in the garden for colorful light catchers. 

• Make anything out of pallets, from a shed to a pathway, a hanging glider or even a picnic table. 

• Create a vertical garden with discarded shutters, weed cloth formed into pockets, and easy to grow succulents. 

• Make an outdoor couch using stacked cinder blocks, fence posts threaded through them as the seat and then top with an outdoor cushion. 

• Stack two large terra cotta pots on top of each other with the closed bases opposite and glue them tight. This makes a fun, natural outdoor table. 

• Use anything as a planter. A bicycle basket, tires, a chair as a support for a container, a barrel, a pallet hung vertically, etc. 

• Build a home recycling center with just a few materials, a saw, screws and some paint. 

• Create a summertime game space on your patio. Scrabble, Bocce ball, golf, Jenga, and many other games can be upsized or downsized for outdoor fun. 

• Save your toilet paper cones and make a bee nest. Unroll the cones and wind to tighter circles, insert them into a tin can and you have a home for Mason bees. Paint the can and decorate as you wish. 

• Create a burbler or fountain with two old or new garden pots nested, a pond filter and pump and a hidden bucket under the whole thing as a reservoir. 

Dig around your landscape, attic, and hit the yard sales to find materials for all your creative DIY projects. You'll be amazed what you can achieve and at a fraction of the cost of new construction and purchased products.