Green

What I have done with Freecyling and Going Green with my house. Some of it is because it helps the environment and some is because I am cheap and you have to do what you have to do to get by.


Once was a deck in East Nashville. It was going to be thrown away but I was able to get the wood and reuse it for other things around the house.


1st was the compost bin


2nd was a square planter and 3rd the bigger longer planter


4th another identical big planter.


5th 4 little wooden planters for smaller bushes

Butterfly House

My newest work, but might be my worse. It didn't turn out how I wanted and I might do back and remake it with another type of wood or screws. This one was just being a pain for some reason. The wood wanted to split, and one did that I had to remake one piece, and it just wanted to be a pain even though it wasn't that big. I make the butterfly house to attract butterflies. I would have done things for birds and bees, but I have a nephew and other friends with kids and butterflies aren't scary. I have already started some small plants in the back (coneflowers) of the big planter to attract butterflies and I will have a couple of other plants in the work and I might buy (butterfly weed) to help bring them in.

2nd Big Planter For Trailers

A planter box may not sound great to a lot of people, but just think that these wood use to be a old deck. So think of freecyling (IONLife channel term) or going green.

As the plants grow they will start to hide the trailers some, not 100% but just look better. The plant I have in it right now I started as seeds indoors and they can grow up to 15 ft tall.


Also with all the planters might keep people from trying to steal them. Trailers are valuable, but I have a trailer lock on 2 of the 3 and a thick chain attaching 2 of them. As soon as the plants start to grow it will really take shape.



It's looking better, slowly.

Moved Square Wooden Planter

I made this square wooden box planter and I had it out in front of the trailers. I decided to make another big 40x14x20 planter and moved this planter to the patio. I still don't know what type of rose bushes I have, but they are small and put out a pink/red roses through out the the summer and fall. So I moved them from the smaller pots that I had them in, originally had them on the patio wall that I made long planters to take it's place. Once I add some flowers around the bottom of the planter I think it will look better.

Square wooden planter (made from a old deck wood that I made the 2 big planters in front of trailers and the compost bin)





Patio now

Window Planters

The house was very plan and needed some more color/plants, so I decided to add some windows planters. I could have just bought some at Walmart or Lowes, but I couldn't find just the right length or the same color and type so that all the windows planters would be the same. So I decided to make some wood planters myself. I'm not the greatest wood worker, but I did ok. It took me a while to decide what design and color scheme to go with, but I finally got done with the window planters.

Started with some 1x3s


The smaller planters put together


Putting the bigger front window planters together


Bigger planters put together


Close up of the bigger planters


1st coat of paint. I decided to go with the same look & design as the window planter on the lumber in the front.


Before simple window





Before simple window


After (right window)


After (left window)


I have stapled a trash bag liner on all planters I made to keep the soil & water off the wood to help make them last longer.


After (new window planters)


Before side windows


After (new small planters-kitchen window)


After (new small planters-bedroom window)



They are award winning, but I think they add a little. A little here and a little there will add up.

New Big Long Planter for Carport

The last project I did, which took to long and wore me out, was adding a big flower planter to the end of the carport. I am going to try and get some small trees and plant in the planter and they can grow up tall enough to cover the carport from the street. hat way i gives you a little bit of privacy.

The planter is about 8 feet long x 2 feet wide (inside area) x 2 feet tall




Filled in enough dirt to get it ready for plants


Before (just moved in)


1st container in front of couch


After (now 11/8/09)



This past weekend I went and cut down some bamboo from a another East Nashville house. Very nice guy and very nice house. The BamBoo was harder then I thought to cut down. BamBoo roots move around and just about all stocks are tied together. Almost like a spider web type because 1 stock may have 1 or 4 different roots going off of it and tied with other stocks. I spent 2 hours getting enough for what I needed. Now done, well we will see how the BamBoo does in the planter. If it dies I will have to think of something else. Also I still had to add 15-40 Lbs bags of soil, good thing Home Depot had it on sale for $1 each. (3-27-10)




Before and After

Solar Light Pots

I got this idea from HGTV's website or some garden website, can't remember which one. They used a old broken solar light to put in a container pot to give some plants added height to make the container look bigger without being bigger. I used the same idea but I added it to the flower bed.

Normal looking solar lights


Take the inside lights and top off.




Add a little bit of gravel for drainage


Next I spaced the light fixtures out and pushed them in the ground.


Then add some soil to the light. Now it is becoming a small flower planter.


Now you can see the solar light fixtures and during the growing months you will see some purple Iris growing in the flower bed and then maybe some red or another color growing from the solar lights. Or add something like Crepping Jenny and have lime green/green growing down from the fixtures.