One Man's Trash...

In a post in the not-too-distant past, I wrote about some tomato starts that came up volunteer in some seed pots that I grew French Sorrel in.  The seeds must have been in the soil that I reused from back in January when I started the spring tomatoes.  Today I re-potted them so they won't have to compete with the sorrel for nutrients.  Now they have their own pots to grow in.  There's nine of them in all.

Because they kind of came up on their own, I don't know the varieties.  It'll be a little mystery until they fruit in the fall.  Hopefully they are Black Krims or Cherokee Purple.  They are healthy little plants

I wanted to show you a little something that I found in the yard day before yesterday when I was mowing.  It was a big spoon.  Someone tossed it in the front yard.  Who does that?  Were they eating a bowl of cereal and milk, finished up, and tossed the spoon out of the window?  Who knows?  I got off the lawn mower and picked it up.  I'd hate to run over it.  I put it in the cup holder, meaning to throw it away.

But the more I thought about it, the spoon had promise.  The spoon would be my new garden tool - something perfect for transplanting seedlings without cutting the roots.  It just needed some alteration to make it more ergonomic.  The 'gift' spoon had some sharp edges that wouldn't be comfortable on the hand while digging, but I can fix that!

I cut one of the sleeves off of an old t-shirt and wrapped it tightly around the top of the handle.  You might call it a cushion.  Then I wrapped some duct tape around and around it until covered up the t-shirt.  Now, I just needed to give it a test drive.  It superbly uprooted the tomato seedlings from around the roots of the French Sorrel and dug a hole in the soil where I was to plant it.

It felt good in the hand and worked good for my little task.  I think I'll keep it.

I've heard it said that some people are born with silver spoons in their mouths.  It isn't quite that way with most.  Sometimes we have cheap spoons thrown away in our front yard and we learn that we can find a way to turn one man's trash into another man's treasure.  Maybe I can patent my new Garden Spoon design?