Spring is so close that I can smell it! It's just about time to start planting those spring crops, and now is also the perfect time to add a few upcycled touches to your spring garden. Here are a few ideas to get you going!

1.  Boot Planters

Going vertical is a great way to grow more in less space. Hit the thrift store and find some old rain boots to create these sweet, upcycled hanging planters.

2. Reclaimed Raised Bed

Raised beds are great for keeping weeds and pests at bay and in areas where the soil quality might be on the poor side. Instead of using new lumber, check out this upcycled garden bed using reclaimed wood instead.

3. Wine Box Containers

For smaller plants, like herbs, you can use old wine boxes to create beautiful, upcycled planters.

4. Bike Wheel Trellis

Gather up some old bike wheels and create a beautiful, upcycled trellis for your climbing plants, like beans!

5. Wine Cork Plant Markers

You think you will remember what you planted where, but there's always those one or two plants that slip through the cracks when you don't write things down. Grab some wine corks from your stash to make sweet, upcycled plant markers and never guess at your garden's layout again!

Are you adding any upcycled touches to your garden? I'd love to hear what you're planting and how you're designing your space in the comments!

We love offbeat gardening ideas around here, and this bicycle wheel trellis is just a stunning example of creative reuse!

Bike wheels are pretty durable, but a big accident can mean that your old wheel goes kaput. Maybe it gets cracked or bent too far out of shape to be trued again. Whatever the reason, once a bike wheel is dunzo, it's...dunzo. It's not easy to recycle, but just because it's not useful for pedaling anymore doesn't mean it's not useful at all!

Over at the Kirksville Permaculture Education Center, they shared a gallery of photos of this beautiful trellis. What a lovely way to reuse kicked bike wheels!

Of course, most of us don't have a a bunch of bike wheels sitting around our house, but I bet your local bike shop has lots of spent wheels laying around! Next time you're in the neighborhood, pop in! Chances are they'll be happy for you to take those off of their hands. In many places, businesses have to pay to dispose of trash and recycling, so there's a good chance you're helping them out as much as they are helping you.

The Kirksville Permaculture Education Center site didn't have instructions on how to build this trellis, but it looks super simple. Here's how I think it went down:

Materials

• Wooden H-frame - you can buy one or build your own from reclaimed wood
• 8 used bike wheels
• zip ties or popped bike inner tubes

Directions

1. Stake the frame in the ground wherever you want your trellis. Make sure it's nice and secure, because those tires and the plants that grow up them are going to add a lot of weight.

2. Use your zip ties or the inner tubes to link the tires together and link the tire grids to your frame.

3. Plant something that climbs - like grapes, luffa, or beans - at the base of your structure, and watch it go!

Want to see lots more photos of the bike trellis? Click here!

It is officially fall, y'all, and that means that our outdoor herb gardens are about to be kaput. One way to save those delicate herb plants from the chilly fall weather is by transplanting them to containers and moving them to a sunny window indoors, and using self-watering containers makes growing that indoor herb garden even simpler!

Where to Put Your Self-Watering Herb Garden

The most convenient place to put your herb garden is right in the kitchen, if you have a sunny enough window.

Your herbs don't need a ton of direct light, but they will need at least a few hours of direct light or 6+ hours of indirect light per day to thrive. Self-watering containers take out a lot of the guesswork from container gardening, but sunlight is the other key to indoor gardening success.

DIY Self-Watering Containers

Got your sunny spot all picked out? Fantastic! Now, you just need to collect the materials to make your self-watering herb planters. You'll need:

• an empty one-liter plastic bottle for each herb plant
• orange oil to remove the sticky label
• marker, scissors, and utility knife to assemble the planter
• potting soil, and (of course!) your herb(s) of choice

Ready to get crafty? Get the tutorial here!

Are you guys planning on growing any plants indoor this fall and winter? I've got a Meyer lemon tree that lives outside in the spring and fall, but comes in when the lows get below 50F. I've done some herbs indoors, and these simple planters have me wanting to grow some again!

Fall might be right around the corner, but around here mosquito season feels like it has no end in sight. Thanks to an unnaturally warm winter, the bugs have been out of control this year! I can't take the dog out back to play without getting covered in bites. Blech! That's why I was thrilled to run across this all natural mosquito repellent from Eco Etsian Aquarian Bath.

Commercial mosquito repellents are bad news. They're loaded full of mystery chemicals and fragrances, some of which are even carcinogenic! No, thank you!

Aquarian Bath's repellent is a balm, rather than a spray, so you massage it onto your skin. She makes her balms out of totally natural, plant-based oils and wax, so really it can double as a (strong-smelling) lotion. So, what's keeping the mosquitoes at bay, if there's no DEET in this tin? The balm contains a blend of essential oils that smell nice to people and terrible to bugs: lemongrass, spearmint, rosemary, and catnip. Pretty cool, right?

Because it's oil-based and you rub it into your skin instead of spraying it on the surface, this natural mosquito repellent also lasts longer than conventional bug sprays. The $12 price tag might seem on the hefty side, but since you don't have to reapply, you end up using less to do more.

Have you bought or made a natural mosquito repellent that you love? Tell us about it in the comments!

If you haven't already, now's the time to start getting your garden ready for fall! Even if the temperatures are still sweltering where you're at, you can still check out seed catalogs and order the fall seeds you want to plant. Anything that needs to start from seed should do fine indoors, as long as you have a sunny enough window where you can set your trays.

Once the seedlings sprout, you're also going to need a place to transplant your fall fruits and veggies. You can plant them in the ground, but a raised bed makes gardening a lot easier. It provides natural weed control, especially if you lay some reclaimed cardboard boxes and newspaper down underneath, and if you live in an urban area, planting in a raised bed is a great way to get around contaminated or bad soil.

If you're going to build your raised bed out of new wood, make sure you choose untreated wood. Treated wood is soaked in chemicals, and you don't want them leaching into your food.

New wood isn't the only option for building a raised bed. Check out this great video on how to build a raised garden bed from reclaimed windows!

The only word of caution I would give: depending on how old the windows are, you may want to test to see if they were painted with lead paint. You can pick up lead testing kits at most home improvement stores for under $30, and one kit will do a lot of testing.

Going vertical is a great way to fit a little more green into a small space, or really any space, and you can make vertical planters out of all kinds of reclaimed materials from old rain gutters to shoe organizers. I'm loving Rosy Posy's awesome take on the vertical garden starring brightly colored rain boots that her children have outgrown.

What a great way to go vertical and keep some plastic out of the landfill at the same time. Have you guys done any unusual vertical gardening? I'd love to hear your ideas in the comments!

Get the tutorial here!

[Via Dollar Store Crafts]

Increasing biodiversity is one of the most important goals in the garden. The benefits are a really big deal, including:

• Decreased disease and insect predators
• Increased beneficial insects and other organisms
• Decreased weeds
• Improved soil fertility
• Healthier plants
• Higher overall yields from the vegetable garden

To get there, we need to encourage more species of plants, animals and beneficial microorganisms all hanging out together.

The microorganisms (bacteria, fungi and protists) and animals (insects, worms, spiders, etc.) can be introduced with quality compost and leaf mulch, two of the most important inputs in most gardens. Compost tea and other microbial inoculants are also increasingly popular to increase microbial diversity.

Then we introduce seeds, seedlings, and plants from the garden center. Since the focus today is on increasing biodiversity, that means companion planting.

While companion planting has its share of mythology - check out my companion planting chart - the general concept is incredibly important.

Companion Planting

Some plants create substances that attract or repel certain plant predators. Others create substances that enhance or hinder the growth of other plants.

For example, while I was eating rice for breakfast this morning I was reminded of a huge study 10 years ago on many thousands of acres in China. They increased rice yield by 89% and decreased rice blast disease by 94%, simply by planting more than one species of rice together in the fields.

And that's probably about the simplest form of companion planting there is, using 2 cultivars from the same species. In the garden, we have an opportunity to promote much more biodiversity than that.

Two Easy Ways to Use Companion Planting in Your Garden

There are many books out there that outline which plants should and shouldn't be planted together. I'll just list 2 of the simple guidelines I tend to follow without really even thinking about it:

1. Herbs. Many herbs - including basil, parsley, oregano, thyme, sage and dill - provide many pest control services, so I use them all over the place. Basil is very beneficial, especially when planted with tomatoes and peppers. You do need to do a little research before planting, though. For example, it's generally agreed that you shouldn't plant dill beside tomatoes.

2. Alliums. Onions and many other alliums such as chives and shallots are great all over the place. Onions can help decrease disease on strawberries, but aren't great companions of legumes. Garlic is a member of the same family, and is another one that should be used liberally.

Then there are polycultures, which in its simplest form just means planting a bunch of plants in close proximity in order to allow them to benefit each other and make efficient use of space. Most of my organic garden beds have 10+ plants in close proximity.

Companion planting can get very technical, but it doesn't need to be difficult. A few guidelines can help ensure success, and the bottom line is that planting many complimentary plants close together is an important way to increase biodiversity in your garden, which creates a healthy, more resilient ecosystem.

Phil Nauta is a SOUL Certified Organic Land Care Professional. He's the author of the book 'Building Soils Naturally,' published by Acres U.S.A. He has taught for Gaia College and been a director for The Society For Organic Urban Land Care. He was an organic landscaper and ran an organic fertilizer business before starting www.SmilingGardener.com to teach practical organic gardening tips to home gardeners.