Turn An Old Shoe Rack Into Useful Solution For Garden Plants

You've replaced your old shoe rack or finally have the shoe closet you've been pining for, but it seems a shame to just toss out the rack that kept your footwear organized. Hold onto it if it's still structurally sound because there are lots of smart ways to repurpose a shoe rack around the house. One of them is a useful solution for your garden plants, indoors and outdoors. Indoors, a shoe rack can be a stand for houseplants, an apartment dweller's garden, or a drying rack for garlic and herbs. Outdoors, a shoe rack's portability makes it ideal for holding plants that need to be brought in at the end of summer. What's easier than picking up the whole thing, bringing it indoors, and setting it back down?

Shoe racks with multiple slanting shelves are ideal for an outdoor garden, especially if the shelves are slatted, rather than solid. The openness of the design provides ample air circulation, a factor critical for both growing and drying plants. Good circulation helps prevent disease in growing plants and hastens evaporation in drying plants. This open design also helps turn your old shoe rack into a trellis with plenty of places to tie plants to as they grow. If you use it outdoors, you can water plants freely or rinse vegetables before you bring them indoors without worrying about water runoff.

To repurpose a shoe rack as an indoor or outdoor herb garden, fit square pots snugly on the shelves next to each other. Fill each container with a potting medium meant for herb growing, and either replant seedlings or start your herbs from seeds in the containers. Fertilize them judiciously with a product designed for herbs. If you use the herb garden indoors, you'll need a bright spot that gets at least six hours of sun a day. If you let your garden grow in a sunny spot outdoors, you can bring it inside when the weather changes, and the herbs will keep growing. Of course, you can use the rack to hold potted plants other than herbs, as well.

Add air drying to your list of preservation methods for your garden's bounty. Set up your shoe rack in an unused spot in the pantry for drying vegetables. Done right, dehydrated vegetables remain edible for years, but they may turn colors or develop off tastes in less time. Stretch cheesecloth or netting over the shelves on your shoe rack, blanch the vegetables, and spread them out on the netting. When the vegetables are dehydrated, store them in sealed containers and use them within six months.

It's important to use a rack made from a material that withstands water and humidity. Metal and plastic work best. If your rack is made from wood or wood composite, coat it with polyurethane to waterproof it. If you'd prefer not to, use your wooden shoe rack for anything that doesn't require added moisture, like drying bundles of herbs.