The Good Life!

Those of you who follow DIY Homefit on Facebook will already have seen the fascinating picture on the right! Grow Your Own Grass Chair!

As we said on the post, it may take a while but we can’t deny it looks cool.

In a recent blog we looked at some of the potential ways you could upcycle old kitchen cupboard doors and drawers if you are using replacement kitchen doors as part of a kitchen refurbishment. One of the suggestions was to use old kitchen drawers for container gardening. In this article we look at a couple more ways that you could upcycle old kitchen units for use in the garden this summer.

The title of this article relates back to the very popular TV series The Good Life, which broadcast back in the ‘70’s. It featured Tom Good, a 40-year-old London plastics designer, and his wife Barbara who decide to start living in a totally self-sufficient way in their home in Surbiton. This causes huge conflict with their friends and neighbours Jerry and Margo Leadbetter, and increasing comic tension as their relationship is pushed to its limits. With a star cast of Richard Briers, Felicity Kendal, Penelope Keith and Paul Eddington it repeatedly featured in the voting for Britain’s Best Sitcom.

Ironically, there is an ever-growing trend for self-sufficiency these days, even – or perhaps especially – amongst the Margo and Jerry’s of the world! You can now purchase very trendy vegetable growing troughs – at equally trendy prices!  

Whilst we think it’s a great idea to grow your own vegetables, why pay money when you can upcycle? If the idea is to reduce your carbon footprint then let’s do that right from the start!  

Many commercial vegetable troughs are raised and have either a rectangular shape – just like the traditional cattle trough shown below left – or more of an upside down triangular shape. Either shape will work for growing vegetables – or you may prefer just to put slightly raised sleepers off the ground as shown below right (image sourced from railwaysleepers.com).  

For any of these permutations, old kitchen unit doors could be used effectively to create your very own version at negligible cost, and set you firmly on the path to a more self-sufficient way of life!

Once you have started growing your own vegetables you need to ensure that you have plenty of storage space for them in your kitchen! We will look at some options in our next article. Meanwhile do send us images of different ways you have upcycled old kitchen cupboard doors for garden use and we may well feature them in a future article  . . . . .