Written By Robin - Expert in Garden Buildings For 39 Years. Hi, I'm Robin Antill, founder of 1st Choice Leisure Buildings, and I use my expertise gained over 39 years in the garden buildings industry to understand that each customer is different. With my manufacturing, retailing and customer service experience my articles help people choose their ideal shed, garden workshop, summerhouse, log cabin or garden office needs to suit their requirement and that is key to satisfaction.
And what do I do when I'm not writing? You may find me following Grimsby Town Football Club or
riding roller coasters - so plenty of 'ups and downs' in my life.
It's important that we recycle as much as possible on our Earth as our natural resources are being used at an alarming rate. Thankfully a great deal of effort is being put into this with many councils providing collection facilities for most household waste and garden rubbish. There are many people who complain about having to do this but just a little effort from each of us does make a great deal of difference.
Glass, paper, cardboard and plastic can all be recycled as well as kitchen food waste collected by many councils. However, kitchen waste can be used in your garden on the compost heap along with all your grass cuttings and weeds pulled from your garden. You can situate the garden composter behind your garden shed where it will slowly turn into usable fertiliser for the garden. This action will reduce the need to keep dangerous chemical in your shed so can only be a good thing.
One of my hobbies is riding roller coasters which I started about 3 years ago. Since then I have ridden over 300 different coasters - both wooden and steel. When I started I used to prefer steel coasters but as time went on I decided that wooden coasters are best and most exciting. My favourite in the UK is Megaphobia which is located at Oakwood Theme Park in Wales.
Last winter, at Oakwood, they have been working on some new family attractions and found they had accumulated a lot of discarded wooden pallets as well as other waste materials. Conscious of the need to be green they have been using these wooden pallets and have been making some new features from them such as garden sheds and flower planters.
The brains behind this scheme is Matt Abel, Oakwood's maintenance manager and by using his woodworking skills has created a series of wooden planters in the shape of a train as well as a garden shed. He said that being a large organisation there is always an abundance of waster material to dispose of and when he saw all these wooden pallets decided it was a shame to throw them away. The train was made from old plant boxes that were removed from the park last year. After cleaning the wood with a pressure washer they were converted into a little wooden train and is now planted with daffodils and other seasonal flowers.
He said it had been a lot of work but was pleased with the results. Hopefully being able to offer a covered sheltered shed for people's bikes will encourage more cyclists to visit the park. The wooden train created also acts a barrier to Oakwood's miniature train which goes around the park.
Oakwood's ambitious plans for 2013 includes a large investment of over £4m and will create a new family park area. There will be 7 new rides and attractions which includes a spectacular water ride as well as a children's play area.
It's great that recycling is enabling great uses to be made of materials such as wooden & timber pallets and are being turned into useful items such as garden sheds, garden sun houses and other outdoor garden related items.