Have you ever given any thought to what happens to all the concrete that gets removed from residential and commercial place – like driveways or sidewalks in neighborhoods; or street or highways or huge parking lots; or building demolisions? Concrete just doesn’t evaporize into thin air! It stays around forever, basically. Those broken chunks are used to make man-made reefs, along with scrap iron and other extremely long-lived trash materials. So, how can we recycle broken concrete and give it a new purpose?

Artist and all-around-creative guy Tom Vanderzyl and his also very talented wife, artist Alice Bateman, were in the throes of building a brand new home in Texas. As happens with many folks, Tom and Alice looked for ways to help cut construction costs.

On top of that, they are also highly desirous of helping the environment by recycling materials whenever they can. They came up with the idea to utilize broken concrete that would otherwise end up in a landfill for their new driveway.

I think their eco-friendly repurposing of huge slabs of broken concrete to pave their new road/driveway that leads to their home is a truly awesome recycling idea! And they helped keep all this concrete out of their local landfill plus they saved a ton of money too.

Here is a view of what the bare road up to Tom and Alice’s new home looked like before the project began.

And … here’s the workers starting to lay down the recycled broken concrete slabs. Look at the size of some of these chunks! (I bet those guys backs sure hurt at the end of the day!!)

Tom added these comments when he sent me the photos:

“So interesting is the use of discarded chunks of cement turned upside down, so that the organic side is showing. A very rough ride for cars approaching our home, but very cool to look at and there will be no speeding down the drive!

It is “green”. It is free! And it will be covered with earth and grass seeds. The earth will fill up the open areas and the grass will grow between the blocks of cement. We will not be stuck in the mud this winter! The work did cost us much more than we expected but with the free material it really fits right in.”

You might be able to think of more than one way to utilize pieces of small, medium or, like Tom and Alice, very large pieces of concrete in your garden or on other parts of your property.

How to find broken concrete for recycling? Well, keep on the look-out for places that accept dumping of broken up sidewalks and driveways that have to be removed for one reason or another.

Loads of broken concrete is available for the asking, but again, it’s first having to source out where to get your hands on the stuff. (Call construction companies that you see doing commercial concrete work – they might quickly steer you in the right direction to all the free slabs you want.)

Another thought I had while writing this post is that probably one day soon some very industrious person will be selling this (one man’s trash) scrap material for it’s chic look and “green” value.

In Tom’s comments above, did you understand what he meant by “the organic side showing”? If you are familiar with concrete that is poured for sidewalks, as example, the rocks and gravel that are part of the cement mixture tend to settle down to the bottom of the wet concrete (makes sense if you think about it).

As a matter of fact, that is why you see the top surface of sidewalks or driveways being smoothed off with a tool called a float. The top surface has to be smoothed, or else it would be very uneven and “rough”.

But in this installation, Tom and Alice preferred the interesting texture of what was previously the original underside of the concrete. As most concrete driveways and sidewalks are poured on top of dirt or sand, the gravel in the cement mix settles down into the soft dirt/sand, and so you get a very rough “under surface”.

So, this is one pretty ingenious, neat, eco-friendly, and frugal way to repurpose and recycle broken concrete. Thanks, Tom and Alice, for sharing your project with us!

How to Grow Mint & Other Herbs from Cuttings from Your Garden or Store Bought Produce – Part 2

A while back I wrote about a frugal way to grow mint from cuttings. This gardening tip is really pretty age-old. I mean, it’s really one of the simpliest propagation techniques you could ever wish to make use of.

Cuttings from established plants either in your garden or a friend’s garden (or maybe ummm … “borrowed” from a plant growing somewhere else) are usually the way you can get free cuttings. But another way is that many fresh herb cuttings found in the produce section of most grocery stores are able to be rooted. So, since I wanted to have fresh mint growing in my garden this year I used two healthy looking mint stems from a small container I’d bought a couple of days before.

I just stripped off the leaves leaving only about 4 leaves up at the top of the stem; made a nice sharp fresh cut in each stem; moistened the stems and dipped them in rooting hormone (one little bottle of the hormone powder will last most of us for many years, unless you root lots and lots of cuttings). Stuck each one into a small deep hole made with a pencil so I wouldn’t disturb the hormone powder; snugged the fresh potting soil in the pot around each stem and stuck the pot in a sunny window. (Sorry for the fuzzy pic – took that with my “old” digital camera that didn’t allow for my unsteady hands.)

I discuss the many ways you can propagate all sorts or herbs and vegetables, even some fruits, in my newest eBook The Shoestring Gardener.

The stems never wilted – yes I did keep the soil slightly moist – and after about 2 weeks I figured those stems had to be taking root as by that time the stems hadn’t started to shrivel or anything.

I then left the little pot outside in a semi-sunny spot to get acclimated and then I repotted dirt and all into a larger pot. All I have to do now is keep an eye on the soil not drying out in the container, which I admit I’ve been guilty of. But it’s amazing how mint can bounce back! Here in Tennessee container gardens can dry out quick. Well, really my garden dries out awfully quick too, especially with the heat and scorching sun we get here during the summer months.

Anyway, here’s my mint today. I’ve been pinching it back a bit to encourage new growth. It already looks kinda crowded, doesn’t it?

Gardening tip: Do NOT plant any of the mint family directly into your garden’s soil unless you don’t mind having mint springing up all over the place. It is very invasive and really can be a bugger to eradicate. It’s amazing how far and wide runners can spread underground! That’s why so many people plant mint in containers.

Grow Mint & Other Herbs from Cuttings from Your Garden or Store Bought Produce

I love to save money in whatever ways I can and being frugal in my gardening pursuits is no exception. So, since I needed some fresh mint for a tabbouleh recipe I was making … and I didn’t have any growing in my garden (yet), I had to buy some at the grocery store.

Did you know you can root many store bought herbs, if they still have fresh, viable stems? You don’t have to depend only on cuttings from your garden to propagate more herb plants.

Here’s a simple way to root mint (and a few other herbs) in soil. I started a couple of slips today so I’ll end up with a nice little mint plant to grow in a pot so I’ll have lots of fresh and FREE mint for whenever I need it.

This method works not only for mint but also for rooting oregano, sage, basil, French tarragon, rosemary, lemon balm, and lavender. Either use a very healthy looking 3 to 5- inch cutting from your store bought mint, or if you can snip some from a plant then carefully cut off a 3 to 5-inch piece of a tip’s new growth, clipping just below a node. Avoid woody stems and soft shoots as they take longer to develop roots.

Dip the  end of the cutting in rooting powder (available at most garden supply stores). Place the end of the cutting into a rich soil and firmly secure it in by pressing the soil in place. Place in a sunny spot; water as necessary. Allow several weeks for the roots to develop before planting outdoors.

*Note: Mint is very invasive and will take over your garden in no time. And it’s a bugger to try and eradicate if you decide to plant it in the ground. I highly suggest you grow it in a pot. You could sink the pot in the ground if you want, but still … even one runner growing out of the pot and rooted and established into your soil could be a headache of gardening trouble in the future. That’s why I’m putting mine in a nice large pot that I’ve also faux-finished to give it some eye-appeal. (Learn how to turn an ordinary pot into something unique using one of my simple DIY decorative paint techniques .)

This frugal herb propagation tip and hundreds more on all sorts of gardening related topics can be found in my 300 page eBook that’s full of frugal and eco-friendly remedies and how-tos: The Shoestring Gardener.