Get Creative With Gardening

Spring is fully here in Del Norte County.  Even if the weather isn't exactly agreeing with that right now, it's still time to be thinking about gardening and getting yourself ready for the season so once this rain stops, you'll be ready to go.  Not everybody is lucky enough to have a garden plot at home, sometimes because they lack the resources to build nice raised beds, or they don't have the space and soil conditions to plant directly in the ground.  However, there are a lot of different clever ways to give yourself gardening space at home, it's just a matter of getting creative and thinking outside the box (or raised bed).

Lately I've been looking at different ways people re-use old materials to create gardens for themselves and I've found quite a few good ideas.  If you're looking to garden this year and just aren't sure if you have the space and resources, check these out and think about giving them a try at home, or maybe they'll inspire you to come up with your own creative ways to make a garden.

Here's the garden that inspired me to investigate clever garden ideas, and to write this post.  You could try this out if you're ever replacing your gutters at home, and for space you really only need a South-facing wall.  Here is the website where they talk about this project in more detail:
http://www.apartmenttherapy.com/more-smallspace-veggie-gardeni-83350

Another good idea, and this one is probably even cheaper than the gutter, especially if you have found a different way to organize your shoes and want to do something with the old shoe rack.  This one was shared with me by our friend Melissa Darnell, and here's the link to detailed instructions:
http://www.instructables.com/id/VERTICAL-VEGETABLES-quotGrow-upquot-in-a-smal/

This one seems like the easiest model to me.  Especially since you can get pallets for free at Julindra Recycling (you can also get pallets that are a little higher quality for $5, also at Julindra).

And finally, here is a link to my friend's pinterest board.  She has collected (pinned??) a huge amount of clever garden ideas that utilize recycled materials; everything from old bathtubs to old tires.
http://pinterest.com/sgiatheanach/hdms-garden/