I have spent the past (almost) two years working in my garden. No quilting, sewing or blog posting. This means that I haven’t found my way to posting for Scrap Happy posts either.
Today I break that silence, albeit unconventionally, and bring you alternative scraps which I have made into useful items for my garden…
and my mud/laundry room!
*I took one old table, removed two legs, cut the edge off, and attached it vertically to the cut edge of the table. This provided an old fashioned look, but more importantly it camouflaged the uneven wall plaster. The newly modified table was then leveled and screwed to the wall. I now have a long needed laundry folding table!
But I didn’t toss those extra legs!
By drilling a half inch hole into each of the centers. Then, using a 2 lb. mallet, I drove in some leftover 1/2 inch rebar into the holes.
With these two table legs, and four others from an old topless table frame, I was able to make functional hose guides for in the garden and orchard.
I haven’t actually measured, but I think the garden and orchard areas are equal to about 1/4 acre. It takes two 100 ft hoses to get around everything. One is connected to a hose station with quick connectors on the backside to facilitate the primary hose from the house. House hose gives me N & S access, and the hose station gives me E & W access which keeps my poultry in water.
A 100 ft hose has a lot of drag when going around corners of the raised beds and my blueberry bushes. These oversized hose guides won’t budge even with the a 200 ft combined length!
I should probably paint them all,
But I couldn’t decide on a solid color for all of them, or if I wanted party-colored for fun.
This one is guarding a new blueberry bush.
I also had some old planks from the walls inside the 1840 cabin at the Mountain Farmlet. I could never decide what to do with them. So I went with functional and attached them to some left over cuts of galvanized electrical conduit. I now have barriers to keep the ducks and (maybe) the chickens out of any newly planted and conventional beds of vegetables.
NOTE: These legs will need to be shortened! It was very hard to remove these barriers until we’d had a good soaking rain!
Scrap Happy is sponsored via Kate and Gun. The participants use/reuse leftover fabric scraps to create new and wonderful items. I have done a similar thing with my wood and metal scraps to share this time.
Please do visit these other creative participants and see their lovely work!
Kate, Gun, Eva, Sue, Lynn , Lynda (Me),
Birthe, Turid, Susan, Cathy, Tracy, Jill,
Claire, Jan, Moira, Sandra, Chris, Alys,
Claire, Jean, Jon, Dawn, Jule, Gwen,
Bekki, Sunny, Kjerstin, Sue L, Vera,
Nanette, Ann, Dawn 2, Bear, Carol,
Preeti, Edith, Debbierose and Esther
Thanks for visiting and I hope this post inspires you to rethink using the landfill!
*GIVING CREDIT WHERE CREDIT IS DUE: While the idea and design was mine, I did need the help of Bob in the muscle work. Carrying, leveling and attaching the new folding table to the wall. I wouldn’t be able to do it without his help. ❤
Life on the Farmlet 
Just checking, are you getting my comments?
Yes! One, plus this so far? I am just trying to catch up today and have replied just a bit ago. I’m kinda all over the place this afternoon and so slow with replies. ❤
There’s nothing to beat a decent sized folding station for laundry, and you’ve made yourself a good one there. But the hose guides are inspired! I’m a great proponent of hanging onto ‘useful’ stuff – I have table legs saved from 2008 which have moved with me 5 times. I refuse to throw them out!
I still want to sand it a bit and refinish it, but I just never seem to get there. Ha! I was desperate to keep the hoses from running over the top of everything There is a good foot of rebar in-ground and I haven’t had one fail yet. I do have some really pretty hose guides, but they are just too short to be of any good use to me out there. Maybe I should put them on Craigslist and sell them to a townie? Table legs from 2008? Put on your thinking cap and come up with something fun or wonderfully useful. I know you could think of something great!
I love that folding table — both the look and the functionality.I build my blog out of scraps of thought — does that count?
The table is stationary. It doesn’t fold, but it does provide me with a place to fold my clothes. (I will fix that sentence)
“I build my blog out of scraps of thought — does that count?” In my book, yes it does – You have a wonderful mind!
If a little cluttered….
brilliant scrapping. I love it when there are other people not using fabric (makes me feel less of an outlier!)
Dawn, I do use fabric too, but I am a great proponent of using it ALL whenever possible. Sometimes I think it bugs my husband a bit that I hold onto things, but when inspiration strikes I’m really glad to know it’s there waiting for me to use it up.
That´s a great way to use old tables instead of just throwing them away!
Thank you, Gun. I hate what a throwaway society we’ve become here in the states. It feels especially good to save anything made of wood from the landfill.
That folding table is sheer genius. I take all my washing onto a sofa to be folded, what I need is a table.
NanaCathy, thank you! I too have used the sofa, and the bed or dinning table too. Ergo, my inspiration!
I love the folding table idea. I still just flop the laundry on our bed to fold it. That way I can’t get into bed at night if it’s still in a heap or not put away! Ha ha!
What is the “orchard” on your property?
It is our fruit trees and berry bushes. Apple, peach, fig and blueberries. I guess we didn’t have them when you were here?
No, none of those were there when I visited. We have varied fruit trees, but none of our berry shrubs or plants have survived over the years. The deer population wiped those out. But, it’s all good. This year we had ample fruit to feed wildlife, including the deer. I hope your fruit and berries do well over the years!!
Thank you, Lori.
Unconventional is good where Scraphappy is concerned – it’s great to see resourceful ideas using different materials,
Thank you, Lynn, I certainly have fun doing it.
Great use of ‘scraps’ that would have otherwise been thrown out.
Thanks! I love recreating my junk into useful, if not necessarily pretty, items.