Repurposed Garden Tool Table and Chairs

In my last post I gave an overview and recap of Spontaneous Construction, but here are a few more pictures of the table and chairs we built from old garden tools and reclaimed cedar fence rails.  For more information about this project, click here.

These chairs and table are one of many items constructed in 6 hours on Saturday that will be auctioned of at the Home ReSource Benefit Auction on October 19 (here is a link to the Facebook Event page).  It is incredible what the talented people and supporters of Home ReSource constructed.  Thirty teams donated their time and effort to build something in order support the idea of creative reinvention, recycling and reusing building materials.

All the items up for bid on October 19th are on display at Home ReSource included three beautiful tables, an English phone booth inspired greenhouse, an awesome rocking chicken printing press (yes, you read that correctly), and many more works of art.

The chairs are surprisingly comfortable- in part due to the long flexible tines of the mulch forks and the back rails that are curved from steam bending.  It was a fun project, and I am looking forward to building some more- but for my own garden this time!

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Spontaneous Construction 2012 Recap

What another great year at Spontaneous Construction (SponCon)- Home ReSource's signature event.  This is a day-long building contest using materials found at Home ReSource. SponCon has been dubbed a "celebration of creative re-invention."  It is a unique and wonderful event and many of us look forward to it every year.


Here is a link to our Facebook album with photos and captions from the day.

Same team- 2011 SponCon Project, a mobile garden cloche

Again this year, our garden coaching business Butterfly Properties had a team and like last year, we built something for the garden.  Team members retained our roles from last year:
me- field marshal, woodworker;
Barry Cummings- metal working specialist, fabrication wizard;
Marilyn Marler- custodial engineer and  field logistical support.

The team and the completed project- re-purposed garden tool garden table and chairs

If you have been following my blog, you will probably recognize the theme- repurposed garden tools.  I love them.  Old tools are special to us. Tools are pieces of art and represent years of embodied work & energy.

This project was part 4 in a 6 part series; it started with the trellis, gate,  arbor, and there are a couple of projects still to come.

Here is what we started with- old tools and recycled cedar 2x4 fence rails.  Reusing these old tools & immortalizing them is a way to add interest to a landscape, and is a tribute to the service the tools have performed.

we are all business

The chairs are made from old grain scoops, manure forks & coal shovels (part of Missoula history since most houses burned coal at some point). Tool handles are welded to the seats, and the back spindles are made from tines of manure forks.

The chair top rails are steam bent white oak tool handles, and the stretchers (horizontal pieces connecting the legs) are tools handles, too. We created tenons on the spindles that we inserted into mortises in the legs for strength.

Checking the handles in the steam box

Bending a handle fresh out of the steam box

The table top is made from reused cedar 2 x 4 fence rails which were destined for the dumpster (they were cutoffs from other projects, & being less than 24” long, their use is limited). All the hardware (screws, carriage bolts, etc) in the project is reused. All of our scraps from this project (like unused tool handles or grain scoops) will be put to use for similar projects.

The potato fork garden table- designed to be inserted into the ground

It is incredible what people can make in 6 hours at SponCon.  There are some fantastic teams filled with skilled work workers  metal workers, an artists.

A bad start to the day- Barry plugs his 110v welder into a 250v outlet

The top 13 or so pieces (there were over 30 contestants), will be auctioned off at the Benefit auction on October 19 at the Double Tree in Missoula.  This auction raises money for the charitable and educational programs Home ReSource provides in the community.  It will be a great event and a chance to bid on these and other works of art (and function).

Another happy family enjoying SponCon!

This was the best SponCon event yet. It is growing and getting more professional and established in the community every year, and like anything of this sort it takes a lot of dedicated people. This year, volunteers like board treasurer Nicole Marshall and Marilyn Marler were co-chairs of the SponCon Planning Committee, and a lot of staff helped organize and implement SponCon. Thanks everyone!

Below is a time-lapse video we took of the event- the whole day in 1:54!.  Pay particular attention to Adapt Design + Build's team in the lower right hand side of the screen as the build a English phone booth inspired greenhouse!

I am already looking forward to SponCon in 2013! 

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Spontaneous Construction 2012!

SponCon is back for 2012 and better than ever.  The annual Home ReSource festival of creative re-use will be on September 29.  And yes, Butterfly Properties (our garden coaching business) is again a proud sponsor, but more importantly we are competing in the building contest again.  Our team remains the same as last year (me, Barry and Marilyn) and we have another garden project in store (to find out what we are building, you will have to show up on September 29!)

Last year we built this mobile greenhouse, and this year we are concocting ideas for something even better, that will hopefully improve on our finalist placing last year (afterall, it is a contest!).

The mobile greenhouse our team built in 6 hours at SponCon in 2011

The event is a wonderful, fun and uniquely Missoula and there is something for everyone to do- from kids to adults, but one the best ways to experience SponCon is to enter the building competition (it only costs $40/ team and they feed you, and you get free run of Home Resource for materials for your creation).
Enter soon, because the word on the street is that the competition might fill up this year!  Sources close to me also report that Missoula's world renown artist, Monte Dolack, is competing this year.

Here are excepts from my blog post about Spon Con 2011:

"Yesterday our team (Butterfly Properties- our garden coaching business) spent the day participating (or as our friend and teammate Barry would say "competing") in Spontaneous Construction.  This is an annual event at Home ReSource that is all about creative and adaptive reuse.  It is a wonderful event and fun for kids and adults.  Contestants have six hours to build anything from materials found in Home ReSource.

It was a fun time with activities for all ages and creative interests (art, music, community, ice cream and more).

 This year was our first time in the building competition and we built a mobile garden cloche (little greenhouse).  Our little mobile greenhouse (actually 3 items in 1- see below), was selected as one of the contenders for the grand prize.  The prize determination will be revealed at a benefit auction on November 10th.  At the auction, among other things, you'll be able to bid on our mini greenhouse and all the other top pieces that were built yesterday. All of them will be on display at Home ReSource (1515 Wyoming Street), until November 10, so you can stop by and check them all out.

We wanted to build something for the garden that was functional and beautiful that was made from from  discarded building materials.  All the wood for the greenhouse was painted redwood (you'd never know it from the paint) deck balusters, and the frame was built out of an ugly steel fence.  The glazing was single pane glass- and there is always tons of this at Home ReSource, ready to be cut up and put to use.

Six hours is not a lot of time. For maximum efficiency, we divided up tasks- Barry did the metalwork, I did the woodwork and glass cutting, and Marilyn did the site cleanup and all the painting.

We dressed up the cart with some shelf brackets and even garden shears for the handles (below).

The greenhouse (displayed in front of the proud team, Barry Cummings, Marilyn Marler, and me), is actually three items in one.  It can be used as a mobile greenhouse (as is), you can remove the greenhouse and use it directly on the ground as a cold frame, and then you can use the cart as a very study, heavy-duty garden cart.

Team Butterfly Properties:  Barry, Marilyn and me

The cart features 20" solid rubber wheels, and is made with 1" square steel tubing, expertly welded and fabricated by Barry.  The floor of the greenhouse is expanded steel for drainage.

Home ReSource is a wonderful place thanks to all the hard work, vision and dedication of its staff and supporters in the community."

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a repurposed garden tool, garden gate

Here is my latest project- a repurposed garden tool, garden gate.  If you recall, this is not on my prescribed list of garden projects for 2012, but this project actually represents me creeping up on a bigger project- a fence for the front yard.  It is kind of a long story how, but trust me, I am making progress on that project, slowly.

Before- a fine gate.

This gate is a replacement for a perfectly good gate I built about 12 years ago.   There is nothing wrong with this gate, but it was not really interesting, nor was it especially inviting.

After- an interesting and inviting entrance into the garden.

Thinking back to 12 years ago in the garden, the gate basically describes the garden, too.  There was not a whole lot going on, and the main objective was to gain some privacy.  

Now that the garden has matured, privacy is provided by trees, shrubs and other structures, and the old gate seemed like an unwelcoming impediment to the garden beyond.

So I took this as an opportunity to add a little creativity and art to the garden, while at the same time, opening up the backyard and connecting the side yard to the back.

As with most of my projects, all the wood (cedar 2x stock), garden tools, and hardware were all recycled and came from Home ReSource (have I mentioned I enjoy shopping there?).

Using garden tools seems fitting as both an entrance to the garden, and to describe the hobbies of the homeowners.

This gate is just down the path from the new trellis I made earlier this year, and there are obvious similarities.

 I think this gate provides a sense of separation, yet allows a nice flow or continuity to the garden.

In case you are wondering, the old, perfectly good gate won't go to waste.  I am going to reuse the screws and cedar fence boards, and the frame and other hardware I'll donate to Home ReSource (where I will probably end up buying them for another project someday!).

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Repurposed Garden Tool Trellis

I’ve been meaning to install a trellis on the side of my house for some time.  This portion of my house always seemed like a blank slate- an expanse of siding. Visually this is a common problem with many houses- between windows house look like monoliths- a monotone expanses of siding.  To me this always represents an opportunity to garden vertically with trellises, add architectural elements, and it helps to add some height- to draw your eye up.  And, for me, it is an opportunity to build something.  

I have been making trellises for some time in our garden to dress up the 6’ privacy fence, adorn (or hide) the garage/ shop, for vegetables to grow, etc…  Most of these trellises I’ve made from recycled cedar fence board and they are all the same or based on the same dimensions.  


Making so many of these adds repetition of form that leads to a cohesive feeling to the landscape. This continuity in design is first a reflection of the divided light windows of our 1940’s home.  

To make a lot of these trellises I made a simple jig years ago, so now I can crank them out in no time- whether to support tomatoes, a vine, to keep cats from digging in our vegetable beds, etc…

However, for this side of our house, I wanted something different, something a little more formal, sort of and something unique. 

So, this is what I came up with- a pretty robust and formal frame, but the vertical dividers made of old garden tools, adding a little whimsy and also to show that a gardener lives here. However, the grid formed by the tool handles and the horizontal supports are the same dimensions as the divided lights of our windows.

Like most of my projects, the materials from this one came from Home ReSource- the tools were, obviously, garden tools, and the wood was cedar deck boards and fence posts I re-milled.  Even though most of my projects are made from recycled or re-purposed materials, typically I try to conceal that fact. However, in the case of this trellis and my new, re-purposed potting bench, I embraced the materials heritage, so to speak!

This definitely breaks up the space and adds interest to an otherwise blank wall and, perhaps more importantly, adds a place for white clematis (Clematis ligusticafolia) to climb.  

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