Saturday, April 27, 2013

3-tab shingles in the garden!!!



Yes!!! That is exactly what I said!! 3-tab shingles in the garden!!
And what do I use them for???? Well,,,, first,,, you must cut them up!!
Maddie approves of my gardening skills!!!
All cut and ready to use!!!
I use them to give me a perfect edge for the flower beds!!! My own  re-purpose of  roof shingles!! These have been in the yard for over 10 years!!!
I still have to re-edge the lawn about once a year, but what a perfect mowing edge!!!
AND!!!!! They come in different colors!!! How cool is that??!!
Here are the shingles that I just put down today after getting them all cut up.
I will be continuing with the shingles and bricks all the way to the far corner in the upper Right of the photo. I let the weeds and grass get a little out of control, but I am ready to attack that area. Once done, I will be bringing in more soil and doing a lot of new plantings!!! FUN!!
Our front yard. I have TONS of trimming to do and I need to re-edge along the brick. I haven't done it for a few years, so past time!!
One of my beautiful Japanese Maples. I love these plants, they are amazing!!
I found this gigantic moth next to our sliding glass door on the back deck. He's huge!!!
OK, got to go. Time for dinner and I am starving!!! Have a great rest of the weekend and Enjoy the Earth!!!
Martha :^)

45 comments:

  1. I love that idea! Keeping grass from creeping into flower beds is the hardest thing for me. I thought about digging the trench around them like a lot of people do, but I like this so much better. And you only have to weedeat or edge around once a year, or you have to replace the shingles once a year?

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    1. Hi Marti!! The shingles don't need to be replaced very often. Mostly they get replaced if they get destroyed by the weedeater!!! If I edge twice a year with my straight edge shovel, they do much better. My husband likes to weedeat often so our shingles get a bit messy, but still, I don't replace for several years!!!

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  2. What a great idea! I've got some of these kicking around because I can't throw anything away. Now I know how I'll use them. Thanks!

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  3. I bought some shingles today. The ones I had in the shed weren't 3 tab and were too light.lk I'd rather they be closer to earth color. I plan on edging with them Monday.

    Lowes has stuff already cut to size, plastic mesh kind of stuff in a roll, like the circles you can put around trees. It looks like a mulched circle or strip. I thought about just buying that, for about 3 seconds until I did the math and figured out it was over a $1 a foot for it. 8 feet for $9-10, and the bundle of 26 shingles was $14. No brainer.

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    1. I hope they work well for you!! Let me know!!!

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  4. Genius idea, Martha! When old shingles are replaced by sturdy new ones, it's great to see that there are creative ways we can make use of them. They now keep the grass from growing to your flower beds, and they also serve as handsome decorations. Good job!
    Nelson Mcglaughlin

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    1. Thank you!!! I think they are great and I am still doing it in the yard!!!

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  5. Do you lay them in a trench or on top of grass?

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    1. I dig a trench the width of my square nosed shovel, about 2 inches down, then lay the shingles down on the dirt.

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  6. Do you overlap the shingles?

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  7. Brilliant. Thanks for sharing.

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    1. You are very welcome!!! I am still doing this too. I just love the way my yard looks with the nice sharp edge.

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    2. Wow. Great idea!
      We just reshingled our shed and can probably use the old ones for this project.

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    3. Great idea! We just reshingled our shed and probably can use the old ones for this project.🤞

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  8. Do you secure the shingles with landscape staples or do they not need it?

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    1. They don't need staples!!! And once the sun hits them and warms up that tar strip, they magically glue themselves together!!!!

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  9. I’ve done several walkways with these and they look really nice. Love them as edging so new ideas for this spring!!

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    1. Great idea for using them for walkways, non-slip too!!! I would love to see phontos!!!

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    2. I have used them under rock and mulch. They are a great barrier and keep the rocks from sinking under my drainage spouts. I typically cover them so I can fold them and break them into the size I want.

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  10. Have you ever used shingles under rocks for a walkway? I am think will hold up better than landscaping fabric under rocks?

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    1. No I have not done that but I think that is a great idea and I will try it out!!!

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  11. I love this idea. The previous owner put shingles on 2 sides of my house...this would work great and I have extra shingles.

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    1. Awesinw!!! Good Luck with that, hope it all works out well for you!!!

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  12. Do you cut them?

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    1. Yes I do. I cut them with my garden scissors which are just a pair of paper scissors that I use outside. I use scissors to cut long grass at times, they are sharp and work well to clear a space before I dig the grass out.

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  13. Hi there! This is such a fantastic idea. I noticed it's been on here for quite awhile. I am so surprised at how the shingles look like real stone. Ive got some left over shingles & I'm going to use them to do a brand new flower bed I'm making. So I'll do it right the first time. Thanks for this awesome idea 👍

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    1. Thank you for visiting and your comment. I hope it goes well for you!!! I am still lining my flower beds with the shingles, it always looks so good and gives me that easy to follow mow line!!!

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  14. I never thought of using for that got a whole bunch of usedonehadallinda if diff ideasvit. This one I will definitely try . U used some for a walkway was tired of walling n thud but iu used the dinsiln they work lrettygood

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  15. I want to make a labyrinth with them on virgin prarie but am concerned about the toxity…any thoughts out there?

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    1. I really don't know except that where mine have been for years there is growth around them Remove them and the space fills up with vegetation.

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    2. Used shingles to create my labyrinth and it worked great. Plants between the circles were healthy looking.

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  16. That's what tomato worms turn into.

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  17. nice idea but I would worry about the asphault aspect leeching into the soil. BTW that moth is a Sphinx type and yes they are huge. I had one rest on my screen door all night recently. Such an intricate pattern!.

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    1. I really have no idea about the leeching into the soil??? Nothing has a problem with growing around the shingles so maybe not a problem??

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  18. I am so happy I found this pin! This looks so natural and fantastic. I've been trying to figure out what I could use around the sloping ground of a stump I turned into a rose planter/bird feeder to protect the Lantana and black eyed Susan's at the bottom.. . This is perfect, THANK YOU

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    1. You are very welcome!!! I love using them and being able to cut them with scissors makes them so easy to use!! Have fun with your project!!!

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  19. I cut my first shingle and they look bigger then the ones you are using. Could you measure from the edge to edge of grass?

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  20. Oh my goodness! I LOVE this idea! It looks like you cut them vertically...do you then "hide" the upper half under the garden border (rocks or edging)? I was wondering if I could "hide" or bury the upper half under mulch? I don't have enough hard materials to put on top of them...Thank you for sharing!!

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  21. Great idea. I am going to do this the next sunny day. They are getting far a few between.

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  22. My neighbor layed the entire front of their yard between the street and sidewalk just north of us with shingles, then mulched on top of them. Everytime the wind blew alot of the mulch ended up in my grass and sidewalk which was very annoying! So fyi don't expect the mulch to stay on the shingles when it's windy! They ended up tearing that out and replaced it with rock which is now along our entire property line so now I get rocks in my yard and also the heat off them is trying to burn the grass.

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  23. I'm thinking I'd like to do this under and outside my white picket vinyl fence as I'm sick of weedeating.

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