PVC is one of the easiest materials to work with. Paint or stain it any color to match your indoor or outdoor garden.
This year, I found PVC to be my bestest friend. I use it to make just about anything I need, such as tomato cages, cold frames, a folding table and more.
Here are ten easy projects to make for your garden, and nothing costs over $20 to make. Most importantly, all the plans are free.
1. Bird Feeder
This site not only hosts plans for a Bird Feeder to attract your feathered friends year ’round, it also has several other useful projects, all easy and inexpensive to make.
2. Row Cover
One of the easiest ways to extend a harvest into the winter or plant earlier is to use a row cover. This site has specific plans for row covers and greenhouses to download.
3. Toad House
Sounds strange, doesn’t it? Yet toads are a magnificent way to encourage natural pest control. Build the toads in your garden their own house, and you’ll have fewer bugs in your garden.
4. Outdoor garden sink
This plan was submitted as a dorm room sink, but would work perfectly well in a greenhouse or garden shed. No additional plumbing required.
5. Drip irrigation system
Instead of hiring an expensive landscaping company, build your own irrigation system out of PVC. You can pay-as-you-go, and you get the job done right the first time.
6. Trellis
This trellis can be painted or stained any color to match your garden design. Easy to build, it can be moved into the garage at season’s end or used all year long.
7. Strawberry planter
This is my own design, easy-shmeasy. I saw a length of 12″ PVC water pipe at a construction pipe that was being discarded. I asked if I could have it. The workers laughed, and gave it to me. I went to the DIY store and purchased a 12″ end cap.
At home, I washed out the 24″ length of pipe and cemented it to the cap. I drilled 1/8″ holes at four points around the base and above the cap for drainage. I then drilled over a dozen 1 ½” holes in the sides for strawberry plants.
Next, I took a 26″ length of 1″ PVC pipe I had and drilled lots of holes in it. I attached a flange (a connector that allows the pipe to be attached to a wall), and set it inside the tube. I filled the inner pipe with small pebbles.
Using potting soil, I filled in the planter around the tube and inserted strawberry plants in the side holes as I went along. The top of the planter took another four plants, evenly spaced.
I watered the plants through the tube, and had a multitude of strawberries.
8. Mobile garden tool stand
Your garden tools don’t have to move from one corner of the garage to the other by themselves. Keep them in one place and move them all together at the same time with this handy and inexpensive PVC stand. Recycling at its best.
9. Hydroponic garden
Don’t have room for a greenhouse full of potting soil? That’s okay- grow hydroponically. That’s using nutrient-filled water to raise the plants in instead of soil. Build your own system with this free plan.
10. In-ground planters
In sand, clay or soils that won’t support healthy plants make your own in-ground planters for your vegetables, flowers, and fruit crops.
Using at least eight inch long sections of four-inch, six-inch or larger PVC pipes, dig a hole in your soil and insert the pipe. Fill with at least a half-inch layer of gravel at the bottom for drainage, then with good potting soil. Add your plant or seeds. Water the plants at the base, and feed regularly.
This eliminates the need for moving tons of soil in order to have the garden you want.
If you obtain your PVC from construction sites (always ask first), be sure to wash it thoroughly first.
Have fun with your newest gardening material. It’s so easy to turn these projects into gifts suitable for any time of year.
