Repurposed BBQ Planter

I found a great blog. It's called Wasteland Rebel by Shia and her husband Hanno. It focuses on zero waste strategies they use to reduce their trash to one mason jar per year. That's amazing, but Shia recommends to start where you are and implement the strategies that you can.

One article that caught my eye was The 5 R's of Zero Waste which are refuse, reduce, reuse (repair), recycle and rot. The article talks about the importance of finding new purposes for items that are broken or worn out. I did just that with an old BBQ at the cabin.

I've been wanting a potting stand and planter to put under my kitchen window. I designed one to build from wood, but when our BBQ was damaged during a winter wind storm (see Flipping Burgers), it gave me a new idea. Rather than throw it away, I decided to clean it up to be my "new" planter.

To make it a look less like a BBQ, I removed the side shelf, burner, knobs and lid. The legs and sides were in pretty good shape, but the bottom self was very rusty. I used some leftover RustOleum paint we had to cover up the labels on the front panel and resurface the shelf.










The back panel proclaiming "Master Chef" became "Master Gardener" with a garden bunny mascot. I wanted plastic trays to fit on the shelf and inside the top to hold my seedlings and plants. I found litter boxes at Canadian Tire for $4 on sale that were the perfect size. That made the total cost of my planter remodel $8.

The planter looks pretty good. Yes, I know, it still looks a bit like a BBQ, but it makes me feel good to know I gave a new purpose to something that would have otherwise taken up space for years to come in the dump.

Have you repurposed anything lately? I'd love to hear what you've done. -- Margy