As Wendy Jehanara Tremayne writes in her fantastic book 'The Good Life Lab', extending the life of anything is good manners. By sourcing used items to make new things you help justify the activities and re-sources used in their production, like energy and chemicals, the machines built for their assembly, and the complex systems designed to distribute them. Not to mention the people who participated in the processes, their commutes to work and back again, the children and pets that waited at home, the things they could have done instead, the sunsets missed.

Here are some simple ways to reuse common items around the garden. 

Try using a dog kennel for mama hen. It's warm and dry and yoghurt containers are great for transporting pet food to your various animal enclosures.

An old pot makes a great sturdy chicken drinking bowl.

Old plumber's pipes make great places for your free range guinea pigs to hide from goshawks and cats.

Old hutches make a great place to feed your free range guinea pigs, so the chickens can't steal their food.

That old swing set can be brought back to new with a new set of seats (they are super easy to replace).

Your old shower base or bath with a lid attached can make a great, rat-proof compost bin.

It is worth keeping things you find, for a rainy day and future projects!

An old table beyond repair can be a great place to display all those treasures from the beach and bush.

Tip shops are always selling old doors and door furniture. Who needs a brand new one?

Gates are also a tip-shop dim a dozen item and perfect for getting in and out of animal enclosures.

Bricks from an old fireplace make great path ways.

Old bricks also work well to keep those pesky Houdini chickens from scratching up your veggies.

Do you need a retaining wall? You might be surprised by the resources that lie in your soil ... get digging and find out.

On old marquee can become a great frame for netting your berries over January.

Why buy a new trampoline when the tip shops often have them, all you need to do is order a new mat from Toy World and voila!