Published via Ecency

Since our farm is based and operates on Permaculture principles, recycling and reusing is widely practiced as a way of saving energy. everything is measured as energy.
everything you import onto the farm is energy. your time, the diesel, your effort, whatever it is that you bring in.
Reusing saves you all of the above and you become much more energy efficient.

these are very old traditional ladders still widely used in Portugal. the day I fell off of one of them due to it breaking, they have been reutilized as decorative trellis for this Honeysuckle and they´ve made a perfect match ever since.

bathtubs are being used as large planters and to house our Red California worms that feed on most of the organic kitchen scraps, producing in turn, a tea like liquid which is a very valuable fertilizer and a nutrient dense humus.

I have dedicated a whole post to our work with bathtubs that you can read here: Three Marias in a tub

many of the scraps reproduce in some way or another once introduced to this nutrient rich environment.
most of the seedlings seen above are Hokkaido pumpkin from last season, happily germinating in this permanently humid substrate.

we reuse hundreds of milk cartons and similar containers in our nursery, giving these disposable packagings another life.

collected for us by friends and neighbors, they are cleaned, cut open and then stored for future use.
they are brought to us on market day and so there are no special journeys made for their collection.

used tires have been found to be the most effective way to protect young trees from wild boars. they just avoid them for their smell. this is also a great way to mark these small plants in Spring when weeds grow as tall as a person.
tires are also used to repel the boars from coming into the farm, being strategically placed in access ways around the perimeter.
more about living with Wild Boars here: Operation Javali

pallets. a prime construction material for farm life. we use them for countless uses from fencing, construction, bases to support plants on, shading etc.
mostly, we get them for free or just find them lying around.

nothing is wasted. a big tree that fell in strong winds becomes firewood.

lastly, I would like to share this beautiful song (with English subs) that talks about how nothing is lost, and all is transformed.
Todo se transforma

special thanks to @sirenahippie for the tireless work you do in and around this community.