Amonges othere of his honeste thynges,
He made a gardyn, walled al with stoon;
So fair a gardyn woot I nowher noon.
"January's Garden"—Chaucer, A Merchant's Tale, 816-818

Although Chaucer's legacy lives on with T.S. Eliot's "April is the cruelest month," remodeled from the original "Whan that Aprill, with his showers soote," in Savannah Georgia we often have a true "midwinter Spring" the through virtually the whole winter. Thus, today, we thought it would be nice to present some lovely gardening ideas reclaimed from our workshop.

A nice elegant elephant potholder. Image courtesy of Active Planet Travels

The majority of our materials, from antique heart pine flooring, to furnishings find their way into our hands because we choose to save them from the dumpster and the wrecking ball. So when we are asked to sustainably deconstruct or remodel a historic property, we often carry away more than beautiful historic boards. We end up with sinks and metals, toilets and bricks.

Another use for a toilet bowl. Image courtesy of Active Planet Travels

Although we reuse many of these in our building or remodeling projects, or even make them into furniture, some stay either in limbo, waiting for a new purpose, or some are too battered to reuse in a home. To prevent these odds and ends from ending up in the dumpster, adding to environmental waste and emissions, we've converted them into planters for a little urban garden.

The result is that our stockpile has become instantly more pleasant to the eye, as January's garden, and also transforms our shop into an ad-hoc green space for the community. Repurposing with even an aesthetic purpose is what we love. I'm certain Eliot would rethink his Wasteland if he and Chaucer haunted by.