Recycled Garden Crafts

Decorating your garden with home made crafts will make your yard an enjoyable place to spend time. In the warmer months, it may even serve as an additional room for your home where you can entertain, enjoy nature and unwind.

While several of these crafts will require a trip to the hardware store, they shouldn't tax your crafting abilities too greatly.

Teacup Bird Feeder

Bring beautiful birds to your garden by setting out a darling bird feeder made from a tea cup and saucer. Teacups and saucers can be found at yard sales or second hand stores for a few dollars each. Make 2 or 3 teacup birdfeeders and you can have a fine bird tea party.

Materials needed:
Teacup and saucer (found at local thrift shop)
Copper Tubing (1/2" about 2-3' long)
Copper End Cap (to fit 1/2" or whatever size your tubing is)
Old Spoon (optional)
Bird Seed
Strong Silicone Glue (GE II outdoor use, clear works best)
Piece of rebar or other strong pipe to pound into the ground.

Assembly Steps:
Glue the end cap on the saucer bottom.
Glue the cup and saucer together.
Glue on a spoon for the birds to perch (optional)
Pound your piece of rebar into the ground.
Put the copper tubing over the rebar.
Insert the copper tubing into the copper end cap and enjoy.

By using the copper end cap it will make cleaning and winter storage a snap. Just pop off your cup and saucer dump and refill or take inside for winter storage.

Jell-O Mold Planter

Do you have an old Jell-o mold that is collecting dust and begging for a new life? Jell-o molds make great planters that will bring a little fun and funk you your yard. A bundt-shaped Jell-o mold will make a perfect planter for fitting around your picnic table umbrella.

If you don't already have a bundt-shaped Jell-o mold, search your local thrift stores and garage sales for interesting finds. You will need to punch several drainage holes in the bottom of the mold and this can easily be done with a hammer and a nail. Make sure your hole punching takes place over a piece of scrap wood instead of your dining room table or you might have holes where you don't want them.

Fill your mold with potting soil and add shallow-rooted plants. Since the Jell-o mold is not very deep, shallow-rooted plants will do best, while plants with deeper root systems will quickly get too crowded and die. Also, because of the shallow mold, you will need to keep your plant well watered since there will not be much of a reservoir. Water your Jell-o mold planter once a day, and increase to twice daily for extra hot days.

Spread gravel or tuck sphagnum moss over the top of the soil for a nice, neat look. Slip your mold around your picnic umbrella pole and enjoy your living centerpiece.

Slip the mold around your picnic umbrella pole, and you have an instant-living-centerpiece!

Silverware Wind Chime

In your garage sale treasure hunt, look for old or mismatched silverware to create a silverware wind chime. The older silverware will sound better than newer pieces and also tends to be more ornamental in it's appearance.

Here is what you will need to make your windchime:

• 1 fork
• 1 spoon
• 4 other forks or knives
• Fishing line
• Drill and small drill bit
• Pliers

Directions:

Drill small holes in the handles of each utensil.

Using the pliers, bend the tines of one fork out in each direction (think west, north, south, east), and then curl the ends upwards. Tie a length of fishing line to the spoon. The spoon will hang in the middle, so tie it to one of the middle tines of the fork, as close to the center of it as you can get. Next, tie a length of fishing line to each of the other utensils and hang them from each curl of the fork.

The sound of the chime is beautiful. If using the knives, the sound will be lower. Other forks make a tinkling sound. You can let the spoon hang naturally, or bend the ladle part up so as to hit the other utensils more frequently.