Back in the day (when my grandparents were young) you didn't throw away a toaster when it quit working, you fixed it. If your bicycle tire rim got bent you straightened it out. If the car quit running you repaired it. Today we literally live in a disposable society, if it's broke, toss it and buy a new one. It's wasteful and we have taught our children to be that way. Shame on us.
One thing about living providently is learning how to repurpose or recycle items that are no longer usable for their original purpose. Rather than filling our landfills with perfectly usable items, lets see what we can do to reuse them instead.
Repurposing project #1: Trampoline Frame Greenhouse - this idea came off the internet, Pinterest I believe. My husband saw it and thought we could try it out. I found a trampoline frame that someone wanted to get rid of and our greenhouse dream began to come true. We purchased PVC pipe, heavy plastic, self tapping screws, and a few 2 x 2s. We reused the metal legs from the trampoline (screwed together), wood from a deck that have been demolished, and a bit of leftover screen. We watched a few videos on YouTube, but they were not that helpful when it came to actually constructing the greenhouse. Unfortunately, this post does not include instructions for construction, but a few pictures of the process. All in all, the total cost was around $150.00 which isn't too bad for a 12' x 14' greenhouse.
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| Frame with PVC, Metal tubes and Furring Strips |
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| Back and Front are framed |
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| Rear "Window" for ventilation. |
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| With it's "Skin" on |
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| Panorama of the inside |
Here are a few shots of the plants in the greenhouse as the summer progressed.
June 2014 - Romas, Oregon Springs, Red and Green Peppers. Temperatures were hitting high 90's to low 100's in the greenhouse.
July 2014 -Outside it was in the 90's, inside it was 120+ (my thermometer only went so high). The plants loved it as long as I kept them watered.
Aw but then disaster struck. In late July we had a small wind storm (80 mph gusts) and the top of the neighbors tree snapped off and fell right on the greenhouse.
We were fortunate though, the only damage was to the greenhouse.
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| Squished Oregon Springs |
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| Squished Romas |
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| Greenhouse was a total loss. |
We did manage to salvage the PVC pipes, some of the wood, the door, one set of shelves and the tomato plants. Parts of the trampoline frame are too bent to reuse, so we'll find a new frame and see what we can do with the usable pieces from the damaged one. We will rebuild.
