Reuse your old bathroom suite as a garden!

OK, so it might not sound like something you would see on a swish TV gardening program, or at the Chelsea Flower Show, but bear with me here.

The basic idea is this: use any and every old container you can get your hands on, and turn your back yard into a green haven by filling them with earth and planting them up with vegetables, flowers, whatever you want! With a bit of imagination and some paint (or training of plants to grow up/down the sides of containers), you'll soon be able to make it look a good deal prettier than you might expect. Alternatively, you may want to make a statement with a whole row of old toilets or somesuch!

Here are a few ideas of things that could be reused to grow in:


 * dustbins
 * toilets, baths, basins, bidets etc
 * old tyres - either singly or piled up to create deeper beds for eg potatoes
 * buckets
 * metal filing cabinets (with the drawers out at different lengths you could create a cascade of strawberry plants or fuschias)
 * the glass/plastic bowl from old washing machine doors (although better employed as a salad/mixing bowl if you need one)

That should get you started, but use your imagination and the world's your oyster. Try keeping an eye out at the local domestic tip, or in skips in your area (NB, the contents of skips are still the property of the person who has hired it - make sure you get permission from them to remove whatever it is you want).

The only caveat is to ensure adequate drainage: puncture holes in the bottom of dustbins and buckets, but the plughole should suffice for a bath!

Not only will you be reusing something that would probably have otherwise have ended up in landfill, but you will also be creating more planet-friendly greenery. What are you waiting for?!