Re-purposing What's Been Left Behind

"Upcycling" is a trendy word and a trendy activity these days. Wikipedia defines the term as: "the process of transforming by-products, waste materials, useless and/or unwanted products into new materials or products of better quality or for better environmental value." Many websites and magazines are devoted to upcycling: turn mason jars into candle holders or drinking glasses (my least favorite--I hate mason-jar drinking glasses); turn pallets into sofas or side tables, wine bottles into lamps, a decorative wall, or a chandelier. Recycling is a great idea, but I prefer the term "repurposing" to "upcycling." Upcycling is a bit of a snob; repurposing is practical and down-to-earth.

The previous owners of our house left behind a lot of stuff that we either had to discard or find a way to use or repurpose: cans of paint in the attic, old bicycle parts in an enclosed side yard that now serves as our wood lot, some plastic planter pots, a rabbit cage (and underneath it, buried in rabbit crap, a rug), various other animal cages, a 10X10X6-foot dog pen, a cross fence in the backyard meant to contain dogs when not in the pen.

The cross fence was one of the first things to go; I dismantled it, kept the wooden fence posts and the gate, and rolled up the 2X4 fence wire for future use.

cross fence in our back yard that I took down

Tom replaced the rickety garden gate with this gate from the cross fence I removed. I guess you would call this re-using rather than repurposing.

When I cleaned up the garden area next, I had to decide what to do with the animal cages that had been abandoned there: I turned them into compost bins.

animal cages turned into compost bins

We don't have dogs, so we thought we would sell the dog pen. First, we moved it out of the back yard into a side yard where it could be easily loaded onto a trailer. 

dog pen

Then I had second thoughts. What if I turned it into an outdoor room, instead, and let grape vines cover it? So when my friend Chris was visiting in February, we had her help us move the dog pen again and lower it over a small peach tree near the greenhouse that Tom had just built. The tree serves as shade inside what I now call my "Secret Garden" room, after Frances Hodgson Burnett's book The Secret Garden, which I read as a kid. I painted a 6X8-foot section of cedar fencing to serve as a floor, re-painted a second-hand garden bench and side table for a seating area, and attached reed fencing to one-and-a half sides of the dog pen for a privacy screen. With metal ties, I also attached the limbs of a large grape vine to the back side of the Secret Garden room, and Tom transplanted a smaller grape vine into a flower bed I dug along another side of the room.

"Secret Garden" room, late May

Then I began decorating the room and planting flowers in pots and along the inside of one wall. Tom took the bike rims off of two broken bicycles the previous owners had left behind, and I spray-painted them and attached them to one wall of my outdoor room. I crocheted a hemp rug for the floor and created some decorative hangings.

"Secret Garden" room, early June

crocheted hemp hanging with cut-outs from Peace Tea tins and beer bottle caps

Peace sign at the door, crocheted hemp rug inside

By mid-July, the seasonal "monsoon" rains were coming every day, and I had to remove the hemp rug from the Secret Garden because it stayed wet. By late August, the Secret Garden room was covered in greenery that the monsoon season provides for a short period of time in this dry land.

"Secret Garden" room with greenhouse beyond

"Secret Garden" room with apple tree and greenhouse

"Secret Garden" room--borage, poppies, and daisy fleabane blooming outside

Storm clouds above the "Secret Garden" room

The Secret Garden room is the biggest "repurposing" project we've done here, so far. But I'm always looking for creative ways to reuse or repurpose materials that might otherwise be discarded in a landfill. --Just not mason jars as drinking glasses--Adult "sippy cups"? ugh!