Organizing Old Reclaimed Wood and Working on the Garden

It was a time of organizing old reclaimed wood and working on the garden to prepare for the spring season that was coming up.

After using a bunch of our old reclaimed wood to build our vintage 1930’s style built-ins, it was time to organize the rest of the wood in the garage for a few reasons.

diy handmade 1930's style built-ins made with reclaimed wood

Help us plan for more handmade diy projects coming up in our little pine cottage.
Make room to install a door on the side of our attached garage so we have a separate entrance.
Prepare the garage for upcoming renovation projects.

Nate also built another garden cage to keep those squirrels out of our garden! We also got creative finding ways to sift and apply our compost to the garden beds to prepare it for spring planting season!

ORGANIZING OLD RECLAIMED WOOD

We had collected all kinds of old wood from the early 1900’s. They came from our neighbors and Facebook Marketplace. Some of it was also salvaged from our own little 1930’s cottage during our renovations.

The old reclaimed shiplap in our garage needed to be organized as Nate was planning on using it to finish the walls inside our cottage with.

The old reclaimed wood we had accumulated included beadboard, shiplap, old 1×12 shiplap, 2×6’s, 2×4’s from the 1930’s or 40’s. It was time to organize all of it so that we could plan for our next handmade diy projects using the reclaimed wood throughout the inside of the cottage.

We also have a large antique garage door from our neighbor’s garage that Nate decided to salvage the beadboard from. And so he could store it more easily for us to reuse later.

WORKING ON THE GARDEN

During the winter in Texas we always seem to get warm spring like temperatures throughout the season. It was during this time that I decided to make the most of the great weather and clear out all the weeds in the garden to prepare it for the spring season.

Another project we worked on for the garden was our compost. That was our outdoor compost bin and getting that all mixed up so it would keep breaking down. And sifting our vermicompost~ aka worm poo.

Nate made a little diy sifter for us and it worked really well for the vermicompost. I would say that compost from an outdoor bin would not necessarily need to be sifted unless you want really fine soil in your garden. Otherwise, having larger chunks that may still need to break down should be fine and provide nutrients to your soil as it continues to compost right in your garden beds. It also kinda acts like a protective weed barrier similar to wood chips I would say. That has been my experience anyway.

BUILDING ANOTHER GARDEN CAGE

The final garden project we worked on was building another garden cage. We initially built one for one of the 4×6 beds that grew my Korean melons because the squirrels kept stealing them!

Now in this other 4×6, the squirrels were getting in there and digging holes. I’m assuming they were just hiding pecans in there for later. I realized this when little pecan tree seedlings started popping up everywhere in my garden beds and even my grow bags!

We used chicken wire around the entire cage to prevent the squirrels and other critters from entering the garden beds. However, the awesome thing is that the chicken wire holes are large enough for the pollinators like bees and butterflies to still access the garden beds to pollinate the crops in there.

On numerous occasions I have also seen little birds going in and out through those small chicken wire holes! I’m not sure if they were pollinating or just finding worms and grubs in there.

Nate goes over how he built our diy garden cages in this video if you are interested in seeing a bit of our process. It may help to give you some inspiration for your own design if you have issues with squirrels or other pests getting in your garden beds.

The most satisfying part was watching the squirrels literally throw tantrums when they realized they could no longer get in the garden beds to either access our crops or the pecans they previously hid in them! Now that’ll teach them! And they sure did learn pretty quickly that they would not be able to use our garden beds to their benefit like they may have thought they could!

LEARNING IN THE GARDEN

The winter season was beginning to show signs of spring in the air and it was exciting to get back in the garden again and see what the next season would produce. We are always learning new things in the garden, maintaining it, and trying to figure out how to make things grow and flourish.

I honestly never thought I’d have my own garden and so this has become a bit of a dream come true. I’m so glad to have this experience. I hope you also have the chance to have your own garden. Even if it’s a small one in pots and grow bags to start!

man in garage with reclaimed wood and woman sifting compost in garden

CHECK OUT OUR VIDEOS

Thanks for joining us on this journey! We hope that you will find inspiration watching us learn as we go while we’re attempting to renovate and rebuild this old small historic cottage mostly on our own~ while working full time jobs! Stay tuned for more progress updates ahead. Read more about us here.

You can also watch a video about this here.