A Great Re-Use Project

We order a lot of stuff online because we live overseas. This means we have a ton of cardboard boxes. They usually pile up in the garage until I get a good car-load full to take them to the ECO-Center. Each city in Italy has one. Plus, there is one on base. Just about everything is recyclable. (Not as much as Germany!) Another benefit of living in Italy is...well maybe it isn't a benefit. Cut to the chase...there are a ton of wild weeds here. Shelly and I spent a good bit of time (and money) to make our raised garden look nice...only to be taken over by three different kinds of killer weeds. One looks and smells like thyme. Another is like an ivy...and this guy spreads fast! The last is a crazy looking fella. Not even sure what to compare it to. I've let these menacing plants take over for the past few months. I've been waiting for the weather to break so I wouldn't have to pull them out more than once. Well today was the day. In Italy, most stores are closed...well almost always it seems...but every month, all of the stores open on one particular Sunday. That was TODAY! I swung by a garden center I've had my eye on and bought some small rock. I know what you're thinking. Rock won't save my little gnome! And you'd be right. This is where Green This! comes into play. Shelly and I planted a real nice zero-scaped garden...complete with solar lights from IKEA. (Our home away from home.) Turns out...the weeds require very little water too. Herbicides are out. Both because we don't like them..and you can't buy them here. Landscape fabric is too expensive and the last time we used that method it didn't work. So, Shelly...the smart one jumped on the internet and found out...sure enough...cardboard boxes work better than the expensive landscape fabric! The added benefit. We're re-using a product by recycling it into our garden.

So with two hours of work, Shelly and I cleaned out the garage, removed all of the wicked weeds from hell, reduced, reused, and recycled cardboard boxes, plus made our garden look that much better. Of course I didn't buy near enough rock to cover all of the cardboard. That's OK because the folks at the garden center where really nice. When I go back I just might pick up another gnome for the yard. By the way...not in these pics...two real cool gazing balls. Plus, the plants are from IKEA too. Really! What can't you buy from this awesome Mecca?
You can see there are still some freedom fighters on our steps. Impossible to cover these suckers with cardboard. So we will use a secret weapon on them later this week: Hot water and salt! Die suckers!


Unfortunately we were unable to reuse all of the recyclable items in the garage, so I will have to take these items to the ECO-Center in the morning.