The Recycled Garden Contest has come to a close. Myself and a team of impartial judges have voted and decided on two entires that have each won a copy of Tsia Carson’s book, Craftivity.

Just to refresh, here are the details:

This time around the contest has a theme in keeping with the spirit of the prizes. Submit a photo that shows a thoughtful and unique way that you are using recycled materials in your garden.

And now, The Winners:

• My Serenity Garden: Recycled Cardboard Boxes

  Becky used cardboard boxes rather than the typical newspaper as a mulch to smother weeds and eventually compost her way into a new and imporved weed-free garden bed. We unanimously loved this idea because while it has no aesthetic value, the parts that are recycled literally break down to become a part of the garden. It’s recycling at it’s finest in that the objects being reused never make it to the garbage dump but are disintegrated and contribute to improving the soil along the way.


• Sk8ordiehard: Birdbath

  We couldn’t resist Renee’s simple, but brilliant birdbath idea made using an old bowl and some pieces of rusted rebar. Renee submitted a bunch of great ideas including this miniature border made of thrifted plates with a flowery pattern.

I want to add a special shout-out to Chris Chang who submitted this grow bag contraption that feeds condensation from an air-conditioner through a tube and into a plastic bag holding petunias. Okay so I’m not a big petunia fan since they’ve the Parks & Rec “flower gun” plant of choice for the last 3 decades, but the contraption is a pretty darn awesome idea that demonstrates both the concept of “self-watering” and grey water collection simultaneously.

I have a personal soft-spot for Green Wellies concrete planter made by digging a chunk of concrete out of the ground! It’s kind of like the hypertuffa containers I make although I pour the mix into the ground on purpose and have the benefit of placing all the required holes where I want them.

Don’t forget to join the mailing list (right side, top of homepage) to be notified about the next contest to be announced very soon.