Many homesteaders are great at repurposing and reusing supplies for a different purpose. Polyvinyl Chloride, also known as PVC, is most commonly used for plumbing and drainage around the homestead. Not only is this material durable and lightweight, but it also comes in a variety of sizes.
While you may see PVC pipe in your home being used for plumbing lines, it has a lot of other uses that help organize and simplify work on the homestead. Check out these 10 PVC pipe projects for homesteaders that could be a great addition to your own place this year.
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PVC Wind Turbine
Plenty of us live on open areas of land that have some sort of wind level. While Midwest homesteaders may see nothing but wind, others have windy days scattered throughout the week.
Many homesteaders try to become self-sufficient in their effort to get off the power grid. Harnessing wind energy is a smart option to help power both small and large projects around the property.
To start, consider making a small PVC wind turbine to power a pump, feeder, or heat lamp in areas that are far off from the home.
PVC Tool Organizer
We all have tools in multiple spots of the property. While tools should always be stored in the tool shed, barn, or garage, there are days when you waste precious time looking for the right tool.
Consider building your own tool organizer made out of leftover PVC parts. This is an easy project that takes only minutes to complete.
Many homesteaders have used this idea to help corral their long-handled tools like shovels, rakes, and spades. Storing your power tools is another great option to help organize drills or handheld power tools.
Choosing a PVC pipe that is a few inches in diameter is large enough to feed handles through for easy vertical storage.
PVC Chicken Feeder
Taking advantage of the tube structure of a PVC pipe is a great option as well. Try using a PVC pipe with a large diameter to create an easy chicken or poultry feeder.
This clever homesteading tip not only creates an easy spot for the animal to access feed, but it also allows you to store the feed for a self-feeding station. Add another pipe next to this one as a watering station that will hold a large amount of water that won’t deteriorate.
PVC Garden Cart
While having a garden is essential on the homestead, you can easily spend a lot of time and energy hauling things to and from the garden. A PVC garden cart is a handy tool for gardeners and homesteaders alike.
Not only will it save your back from carrying heavy loads, it will also help organize the tools and things that you need to tend your garden. Here's how to make your own PVC garden cart that can be used for other activities as well.
PVC Raised Sprinkler
Harnessing PVC piping to create a DIY sprinkler is a great option for homesteaders who want to water a raised garden. Simply build a PVC stand that connects to a hose and attach a sprinkler head on top of the stand to elevate the water level.
Raising the height of the sprinkler helps the water cover more area and would be a great way to ensure that raised beds are well watered.
PVC Raised Bed Cover
Covering your raised garden beds from the weather and predators is an essential part of homesteading. Consider building a raised bed cover made up of PVC pipe and some mesh.
You can cut the cover to the exact dimensions of the raised bed and shape the pipes into hoops to help warm it up and keep out pests. Consider using clear plastic for those plants that need coverage all day but still require direct sunlight.
PVC Tomato Cage
Another excellent PVC pipe project is PVC tomato cages for the garden. These cages can be customized to the particular tomato plant variety and offer a lightweight solution to a common problem.
Burying or securing the tomato cage into the ground will help keep it from blowing around in the wind. Building your own PVC tomato cages also eliminates the issue of bent metal legs and broken wires that metal tomato cages often have after a season or two of use.
PVC Vertical Garden
Many homesteaders live on less than an acre of land. For those homesteaders on smaller properties, using all of the space well is important. Consider building a vertical garden out of PVC piping on your back porch or patio.
These easy-to-make vertical gardens can be secured to the side of the home, shed, or garage. You can also build your own freestanding vertical garden to put in a forgotten corner as well.
You can also easily integrate aquaponics using PVC piping since the piping is already meant for water use.
PVC Garden Trellis
One of the best parts of using PVC on the homestead is the ability to create various shapes, sizes, and limitless structures. For climbing vegetables, flowers, or vines on the property, consider building a garden trellis made entirely of PVC piping.
The pipes are easy to connect together and are lightweight enough to install as an overhead structure. The strength of the tube will easily hold the weight of the climbing plants as they mature and should last a long time, even in the outdoor elements.
PVC Fruit Picker
Another option for using the inside portion of the PVC pipe is to create your own fruit picker. Cut the end of a small pipe to create hooks, and the picked fruit should tumble down the tube into a basket or box.
This is an easy way to pick even the tallest branches of cherry, orange, nectarine, or other small fruit trees on the homestead. Using a PVC fruit picker helps save yourself from climbing up and down a ladder and reaching those hardest to reach branches in the top middle of the tree.
There are many other ways to use PVC piping on the homestead other than plumbing. Take advantage of this unique and affordable material.
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Please don’t use Youtube. Give me pictures and text please.
I like the items in this list, but will not spend the bandwidth to watch videos.
Thanks.
TWP