I like the look of chipped bark used as mulch on my garden beds, but right now I just can’t afford it.    So I use grass clippings.  This is good for the soil, it keeps the weeds down, and makes my neighbors happy too!  ( They’re not happy because I’m using grass as mulch)

My neighbors like to de-thatch their lawns in early spring.  They also pick up their grass clippings every time they mow.  We offered a place for them to put all those grass clippings in the back of our lot.  So they bring me all kinds of it.  That’s why their happy.  I’m happy because I didn’t have to spend any of my tight budget on mulch this year, and I don’t have to worry about the weeds either.  So it works out for everyone.

Not really, but I got your attention.  What I should have said was Too Much Scrap Metal.  The by-product of Corn Stove Manufacturing. 

We’re going to recycle our scrap metal as much as possible.  Part of this recycling process means new products to sell on the website.  For example, when the stoves are cut out on the CNC plasma cutter, there are small miscellaneous pieces of metal here and there that could be put to good use in my garden. 

Windmills, plant-stakes, garden signs – I’m busy today making the CAD images we’ll use to feed the plasma cutter.  And tomorrow, I’ll have lots of raw material for my garden decorations.  I hope to be able to sell some of these as well, what’s cool about that is the cost of my raw materials is pretty low – and if I keep the  labor low (by selling these items as paint it yourself for example)  I can sell them for very little money.  That may help someone else – maybe someone who wants to use these shapes for their own small business. 

We’ll see.  In any case, here’s what I’m cutting out today:

We make it a point to recycle anything we can. In 2003, when Dale and I built our house in Glencoe, we had this motto, Reduce, Reuse, Recycle.

One by-product of the stove manufacturing process is lots of scrap metal. To that end, we've laid out our CAD drawings so that any small crack in a 4-by-8 sheet of metal can be filled in with some doo-dad or ornament.

We take these pieces of cut metal, tumble them to remove rough edges, and put them here for you to browse. Perhaps you'll find something that will fill a need for one of your projects. Perhaps you'll be inspired to create (as we have!) garden art.

Check out the pieces we've got assembled and how we used the cut metal to enhance our garden and living space. And please share with us how you've been able to use this scrap.

Here's the link to the product page for All Recycled materials. I hope you'll find something there in the months to come that will trigger your creative genius!