I believe it was one of my nearest and dearest who coined the phrase ‘hard rubbish provides!’ This week there was a little hard rubbish about. It’s spring here and clearly some people have been moved to clean up and clear out. Hard rubbish (I am sure it doesn’t go by this name all over the world, even the English speaking parts) is when you put rubbish too big for regular collection out for council to pick up. Depending on your council area, there is either a time of year this happens and there is hard rubbish all over the neighbourhood, and people cruising around looking for loot–or, as in our area–you call the council and request a pick up.
I was very surprised to find the water well pictured above on someone else’s toss outs. This is a device invented in Australia for making sure that a newly planted tree gets water to its roots. Here is one in use on our baby quince tree.
I mostly make my own from large plastic pots (because hard rubbish provides those too). or, just build up soil around the trunk in a suitable small dam shape and call it done. But the proprietary version has handy features, like a seam that comes apart for removal from a large tree. So all I need now is a tree to plant, and as it happens I have one of those I prepared earlier!
BUT this is the real reason for the hard rubbish post. This is a window blind I picked up off hard rubbish years ago. I remember thinking it would make a great banner, and finally it has! A beloved friend drew the lettering and we painted it in. So for a while it was awaiting a picture she has the skills to draw. And then, our crew of climate change activist-singers Rise Up Singing Adelaide took it along to a controversial bike lane in the city (in case you are wondering, the bike lane is awesome!), and sang to the cyclists to thank them for doing their bit to reduce our collective carbon footprint. It was fun.
And did I mention that it is spring?
Local & Bespoke 
Clever and with foresight!
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Thanks, Susan! There were a few years between pickup and use… 🙂
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Just happened to have a tree you prepared earlier!
You truly are a source of endless wonder.. and wonderful recycling: Not to mention bicycling support…
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Thanks, Manja! Kind and generous as ever 🙂
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Mary, over here on this tiny island we don’t have any such thing as curbside pickup. Firstly, there are no curbs – well, unless you count the ditches as such, they are ripe for falling over! – and second, most of us live so far off the main roads it would be impossible to haul up to bins by the roads. We’ve got an alternative I think you might like; it’s called the ‘Take It or Leave It” and is located at the village transfer station (i.e. recycling center) and it ‘s a spot where all sorts of castoff treasures are “donated.” Lots of hard rubbish there, I can tell you … and you can have a long look around and guess what, take it or leave it!
I enjoyed this post very much. So much fun to hear how these necessities are working in other parts of the world ;>))
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Thanks, Christi! I love the idea of ‘take it or leave it’! I also love the laundry basket of lemons left out with a sign inviting people to take. There is a spot in the neighbourhood where the inhabitants of a set of townhouses (are these condos?) put out whatever they want to give away. Shoes, crockery, you name it. There is also a verge that gets a lot of traffic when the farmers’ market happens, where this is happening too. Lovely to hear from you!
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When I was a student in Switzerland that’s how we all furnished our places …there were splendors to be had on “Sperrmüll” nights. A fellow student made a wheeled cart (from cast-offs, of course) that could manage stairs so she could bring home more loot! In Munich Germany they also had the recycling center – but they nominally sorted and then sold the stuff people dropped off! I still have a side table I made from a washing machine drum and 4 big casters. Like Christi I find it fascinating to hear how these things work elsewhere – and it’s brought back fond memories of long-ago creations. Around here it’s call-for-pickup, so no splendid treasure hunts. But there is Freecycle….
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So many good systems for re-use and recycling. I think people who value this approach are often practical types who will find a way no matter what the system available is–and whether there is a system someone else has created or not! Sometimes ingenuity is driven by sheer need, and perhaps this is the most fundamental for of ingenuity.
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We ,in rural Qld don’t have such a service ,but then Im not sure if it would be of any use anyway.Country folks on the whole all recycle without needing to think about it or know who needs or wants what they can no longer use.
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Yes–I think it’s one of the benefits of being better connected with local people, as well as commitment to best possible use. The privileges of ready access to new stuff that city people have don’t make us better global citizens.
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