Monday, February 14, 2011

Raised Beds

I'm sitting here on Valentine's Day, before a summer in which I won't be gardening because we'll (hopefully) be building, and thinking about interesting recycled raised beds for: Gardening! I promised myself that I would not so much as peek at a Fedco catalog- and I haven't!- but it never occurred to me that I could sneak in obsessive garden design as part of 'siting' the house....

I found this while wasting time on pinterest and loved it. It's an old metal filing cabinet!


That started me thinking that perhaps old fridges could be used similarly. It seems that if one lined the inside in wood to keep the plastic nasties from leaching into the soil that the insulation would be perfect in our harsh climate. Covered in windows, they would be lovely cold frames...filled with compost, they could be great all-weather bins. There are so many of these dead fridges sitting at the dump. Old Dead chest freezers could also be great for people like me who have some physical limitations. HM would surely be delighted at the idea of NOT having to build something else- there's only a house, barn/garage, greenhouse, chicken house, and guest cabin on his list- and this appeals to the cheap hippie in me. (Yes Anna- I've admitted it publicly!)


Update: So this isn't an original idea. Here's a video of a guy using it! 

1 comment:

AKmamaOf7 said...

Hahahahaha. Ok, yes more hahahahaha. Ok breathe. Only you Steph. I love free stuff, but I think you have one upped me on this fridge idea. We were just talking tonight about combining an old fridge into a cheese cave AND a wine storage place. The temps and humidity are around the same. Need a decent not smelly old fridge for that now. I'll fight you for one. I like the yellow "garden bed" though, it's super cute.