A Gardeners Forum Forums Gardening Reference Gardening in 2006 Recycling old crib?

This is the exact same crib I want to recycle, whether it be for in the house or garden. Any ideas?

Tamara, I found about 3/4 of that "exact same crib" in the land fill several years ago, & carted it home! I dolled up the hen house, by cutting every-other post out of the head board end & made braces for it, so it would sit at an angle, to use as a roost! (I even hung a picture in there for them... also free - shopping at the land fill is fun! ...thought they'd appreciate it, but a week later it just looked like a chicken house again!

I would think that you could make a pretty nice looking little trellis out of the head & foot board ends. I kept the posts that I'd cut off, along with the side rail posts, & used them to stake up my Tomatoes & peppers. I thought they looked a whole lot better than regular wooden stakes, & I just hate fighting with Tomato cages, so I don't bother with them anymore. (I use that Garden Velcro tape, which comes in little rolls... pretty slick stuff, & it's reuseable!)

I packed the posts up with the garden tools when we moved, because they were so handy, & look nice in the garden. We had no idea what was planted here when we bought the house, & when Gladiolas came up in the yard, they made really nice looking stakes in the flower bed!

Good idea, to recycle that crib! Happy gardening!

(Oh... and if you still have the metal springs to that crib, it can come in real handy to place over a newly seeded garden bed, to keep the cats from digging it up. They don't seem to be as interested once the plants are up a bit, so you can take the springs back up before the plants get too big, & slide it in against the wall in your garden shed or garage, till next year.)

Tamara, I have seen someone take the panels of the crib, paint each pole a different color, and use them as a fence around a flower bed. Sounds wierd, but it turned out way cool!

Also the bed springs made a fairly good drag to level your driveway with. Tie it to back of the riding lawn mower and drag it up and down the driveway.

Use it as a chicken tractor. If you have chickens that is. Take the bae out and you put old lawnmower wheels on it and move the chickens about. Like to a vegie bed which is spent. They turn the soil, eat the pests and manure the soil for you.It may need a length of chicken wire around it if the spaces are too big.

tamara, what did you ever do with the crib?

maybe a good compost bin

you could paint it green (or just keep it white) and take the mattress out and sit some pots of morning glories or other pretty vining plants where the mattress was sitting at and then you can have the whole crib be a big ol' trellis for the vines!

I was thinking about taking the front and back (where the sticks are) and painting it some antique white rust color and hanging it up from the ceiling of my kitchen and buying those s hooks and hanging pots and such... was going to buy some sort of decorative chain to hange it , then put some sort of vine or trailing plants on top... watcha think? It's just that I have no idea how to get my ceiling to hold the weight - it's kindof a lightweight styrofoam type tile... Put there must be something that supports those, right?

Two year old god daughter still uses the crib, she won't sleep in her new bed but I get it back this summer. I don't want to put another child into it because it is 16 years old, it still passes the safety test.

The driveway thing is a good idea but mine is paved. DH won't go for the chicken thing because I keep putting off the buying horses and cows plan with him. We have a barn and it needs work so I'd rather wait a couple of years so we can do all the repairs than start getting our farm animals.

What great ideas you all have. I am impressed. I was thinking of attatching the two longer sides up with a hinge to create a trellis for pickling cucumbers. I'm still unsure about the two end pieces.

Oh by the way, Pat we use an old spring bed frame to groom a trail in the snow for skidooing and skiing.

Another idea

Tamara, I would take out the bottom, tip it on its side and add lights and shelves. Instant seed starter house where you can move the shelves up and down. That is what ours is going to be used for since it cannot be used for a bed anymore. And once Charlie stops using the mattress in the toddler bed, that part will be going to Sarah for a new bed for her Abby!

Good ideas all. Problem being Baby Emma tells me I can't have it back because she is not sleeping in her new bed. I told her she's gonna look funny sleeping in there until she's 18.