15 Ways to Upcycle in Your Garden

Most gardeners are resourceful by nature. You don’t spend much time growing your own food before you start looking at household items and thinking, “I could use that in the garden.”

But even the most creative among us run out of ideas eventually. These 15 upcycle garden projects give new life to things you’d probably otherwise toss or recycle, and most of them take very little effort to pull off.

Turn Styrofoam Cups Into Planters

You’re probably not going through styrofoam cups on a regular basis, but if a few ended up in a cabinet after a party or event, they work surprisingly well for an upcycle garden project. Poke a couple of drainage holes in the bottom, fill with seed-starting mix, and you’ve got individual containers for starting seeds, rooting cuttings, or transplanting seedlings. They hold moisture well and are easy to label with a marker.

Turn Mushroom Containers Into Planters​

Along the same lines, the styrofoam containers that mushrooms come in at the grocery store make great shallow planters. They’re the right size for starting a few seeds or tucking into a tight space on a windowsill or shelf. Add drainage holes and they’re ready to go.

Turn Egg Cartons Into Germination Trays​

Egg cartons are one of the simplest upcycle garden projects for seed starting. Fill each compartment with a little potting mix, drop in a seed, and the carton becomes a 12- or 18-cell germination tray. The individual sections keep seeds organized and make it easy to transplant seedlings once they’re ready, since you can tear the cells apart without disturbing the roots.

Use Plastic Bags To Create Mini Greenhouses

No matter how much you try to avoid them, plastic bags tend to accumulate. Rather than tossing them, put them to work as covers for your pots and seedling trays.

Drape a bag over the top to trap humidity, using sticks or skewers to prop it up so it doesn’t sit directly on the soil or seedlings. It creates the same warm, moist environment as a store-bought humidity dome.

Use a Crib for a Trellis

If your kids have outgrown their crib and it’s been sitting in a garage or attic, it’s worth considering as a garden trellis before donating or junking it. The slatted sides are well-spaced for vining plants to grab onto, and they’re usually sturdy enough to support a decent amount of weight. Disassemble the crib and use the panels wherever you need vertical support. They work especially well for cucumbers and other crops that like to spread out horizontally.

Use Clothing as Plant Ties

Clothes that are too worn to donate still have a use in the garden. Cut old t-shirts or fabric into strips and use them as soft ties to support heavy fruiting plants. They work well for tomatoes, beans, cucumbers, and anything else that tends to flop under the weight of its own harvest. The fabric is gentle enough that it won’t cut into stems the way wire or twine sometimes can.

Use Fence Pieces For Container Gardening

When you replace a fence, the instinct is usually to give away the old wood or burn it. But with a little extra work, old fence planks make rustic DIY containers. Saw the planks down to the same length, arrange them into a cylinder around an old trash can or bucket for internal support, and tie rope around the outside to hold everything together. It’s not the fastest project, but the result looks far more interesting than a standard plastic pot.

Use Trash Cans For Compost Bins

Trash cans tend to crack and deteriorate from sun exposure, but that doesn’t mean they’re done being useful. A damaged trash can makes a perfectly functional compost bin in an upcycle garden.

Cut out the bottom, drill holes every few inches along the sides for airflow, and sink the can into a hole roughly its circumference. Fill it with alternating layers of browns and greens, add a handful of garden soil (for the beneficial bacteria), water it, and put the lid on. Stir every few days and you’ve got a contained composting system that cost nothing.

Turn Wine Corks Into Containers

If you’ve been collecting wine corks in a jar somewhere and aren’t sure what to do with them, here’s an option: hot-glue them to the outside of an old, tired-looking planter pot. It takes a bit of time, but it transforms something drab into something with a bit of character. The texture adds warmth, and it’s a good way to dress up cheap terra cotta or plastic pots you don’t want to throw away.

Weave Rope Into Containers

In the same vein as the cork trick, old rope can completely change the look of an ugly pot. Wind it tightly around the outside from bottom to top, hot-gluing as you go to keep everything in place. The finished result has an organic, textural quality that works well with most outdoor spaces.

Use Milk Crates as Shelving

Old milk crates are one of those things that tend to linger in a garage or shed without a clear purpose. They stack well, they’re sturdy, and they make great outdoor shelving for pots, seedling trays, or garden tools. You can arrange them vertically, horizontally, or in a grid, depending on how much space you have and what you’re storing.

Turn Wine Bottles Into Garden Bed Edging

If you’ve already put the corks to use, the bottles deserve a second life too. Bury them neck-down along the edge of a garden bed to create a simple, eye-catching border. It’s an effective way to separate one section of the garden from another, and the glass holds up well in all weather. Green and brown bottles tend to look the most natural, but a mix of colors can work if that’s what you have.

Use Potting Soil Bags As Lining

One place you can’t easily avoid plastic is at the garden center — potting soil almost always comes in plastic bags. Thankfully, those bags are easy to repurpose. Once they’re empty, use them as liners for raised beds or large pots. The plastic is garden-safe and adds a layer of moisture retention between the soil and the container walls. It’s a small thing, but it’s better than sending them to a landfill.

Use Food Cans as Vases

Empty metal food cans clean up easily and work well as small vases for cut flowers or as containers for rooting cuttings in water. They’re the right size for a few stems, and if you want to dress them up, a coat of paint or a strip of twine goes a long way. It’s one of the simplest upcycles on this list.

Use Kitchen Scraps as Cuttings

Some vegetables can be regrown from parts you’d normally throw away (the base of a head of lettuce, the root end of a green onion, or a chunk of ginger, for example). It’s not going to replace a trip to the grocery store, but it’s a satisfying way to stretch what you’ve already bought and a great introduction to gardening if you’re just getting started.