My Repurposing Project for The Real Life Repurposing Abundance/Waste Challenge

I saw this amazing challenge posted by @ecotrain that I can't miss. To chek it out please visit this post The Real Life Repurposing Abundance/Waste Challenge ; 🌾 50 STEEM in Prizes 🌾 - ecoTrain Question of the Week Part 2/4.

I'm repurposing quite a lot of things but today I'd like to show you what I've been repurposing for gardening.

I'm a huge fan and supporter or recycling and to my consternation, selective waste collecting is non existent in my city, it stopped sometime last year. This is unacceptable in the 21ths century. The European Union has set a target regarding recycling and reusing waste which my country will most likely fail to meet by the end of 2050. So basically all plastic, paper and glass goes into the household waste, ends up in the same place and will stay there for hundreds of years because we know plastic and glass does not decompose.

This year instead of buying flower pots, which are made from recycled plastic, I decided to use empty water bottles and plastic trays to grow flowers.

This is a plastic tray or box, salads and sliced meat is sold in these. I used it to plant flower seeds. After one and a half month, the flowers are ready to get a bigger container as this is too small already, there's not enough space nor soil fro them to grow. Today I repotted them using a 6L water bottle.

This is the water bottle, the upper part is cut so it can be filled.

The flowers are forming one block as the roots are so grown together, separating them is impossible.

Here it is, in it's new container. It might look strange but once the flowers grow, it's going to cover the plastic water bottle.

So far I have four containers filled with flowers on my balcony table. From left to right, Nigella, balcony flower mix, which will be a surprise, lobelia and pansy.

These are all used plastic cups that should have been throw away. I'm not keeping everything, don't worry, I'm not a hoarder but some things are worth to be kept. I knew I would need some plastic cups for seedlings so I have kept a few. Those served me well during this seedling growing period.

My dad has an old, used tire in the front yard, that is filled with soil and we plant flowers in it each year.

This is a very good solution as the excess water won't stay in a container, it can be absorbed by the ground beneath the tire and when the ground is wet, the flowers can absorb water from the ground.

I'm planning to get more tires to plant flowers. Tires are more resistant then plastic flower pots.

Another example from my dad's garden. This is a nursery or greenhouse (as you like) for seeds till they grow a little bit. This is built on top of animal fertilizer covered with a thick layer of soil. The animal fertilizer makes it warm, the glass gives the plants plenty of light and retains the warm temperature. What you see there are old windows. These windows would have been thrown away and this greenhouse needed glass to be covered with. It's a win-win situation, the perfect repurposing.

As you can see, you can do a lot with recycled, reused material just have to be willing to accept that these won't look as those that you buy from the supermarket. I love beautiful things but my heart is aching when I see the waste that is going on right now, so this is what I can do to reduce it.

This is my entry to the The Real Life Repurposing Abundance/Waste Challenge ; 🌾 50 STEEM in Prizes 🌾 - ecoTrain Question of the Week Part 2/4 hosted by @ecotrain.