I may have reached a whole new level of recycling. I am now picking up garbage from my neighbors bins to reuse at my house. Here’s how the story goes…

I was sitting on my front porch one morning, having a nice cup of tea and contemplating my very sad front gardens. Wanting some kind of edging, but not wanting to spend a lot of money (stone) or introduce any plastic into the garden (dollar store garden edging) I considered my options. You know what would be pretty and totally biodegradable? Woven twig edgings… I’ve done this in the past to make rustic baskets so I know how the process works more or less… that would be nice. I look up from my tea, feeling inspired and see….

My neighbor had just trimmed their hedge and had a pile of twigs loaded up to go to to the dump. It was sign. So I quickly texted my neighbor letting her know that I was stealing twigs (luckily she is very understanding and familiar with my strange hobby habits) and started bringing twigs across the road. It was a rainy day and I had a month of online teaching in front of me, so this was a perfect excuse to stay outside. I know that the wood is most flexible when it is freshly cut and wet.

I cut some of the thicker twigs into 12 inch ‘posts’ and cut the side branches off the smaller ones. The ‘posts’ got pushed into the dirt about 10 inches apart and I started weaving the smaller branches in between. This is really basic front and back weaving; think paper placemats in kindergarten. There really isn’t any science to it. When a stick breaks you pick up the next one, try to balance out the front to backs so that the pressure on the posts in fairly even, this keeps them standing up straight. It went so well, and I was so anxious to NOT go back inside where we are all in a stay-at-home order for at least the next 6 weeks, that I kept going and built one around my old compost pile in the back yard.

Which brings me to part two of my recycling 2.0 story.

I now had a circular garden, with a teepee of standing sticks to grow my cucumbers on. But I also have a ground hog living under my shed who likes to eat tiny cucumbers. So I needed some protection. I have seen plastic juice bottles used as tiny greenhouses but we, as you know if you have been following along, try to use as little plastic as possible around here. So I waited till it was plastic recycling day and went for a walk. In three blocks I collect enough bottles out of other people’s recycling to protect all my babies. Perhaps not surprisingly, this was an evening walk I did by myself as no one else in the family was up for an lovely spring evening of garbage picking. I did invite them.

There were a few awkward moments and I did feel the need to explain myself to several neighbor observers but no one called the cops on me and I kept 12 plastic bottles out of the landfill. Job well done I thought.

Have you ever done any gorilla recycling? Leave a comment and let me know.