Looking for a great way to recycle newspapers? Convert them to pots for seedlings with a PotMaker ^® --a handsome five inch-tall, two-piece wooden form. Jane Nugent, a master gardener who has offered gardening advice on WPTT in Pittsburgh for 13 years, is a fan of the PotMaker^®. She's used the PotMaker^® for years to make starter plant pots from old newspapers. "Anyone can do it," she said. Her young children helped make them each December so that she could jumpstart her garden with plants she started indoors from seeds.

Through experience, she has learned a few tricks of the trade. Cut 3 to 4 inch-wide strips from the length of an unfolded page of newspaper. (Nugent was partial to the The New York Times.) Roll the page around the PotMaker^® 4 or 5 times. Allow 1 or 2 inches to hang over the form's edge. Gently fold the edges under the form. To "set" the pot, fold the paper hanging over the edge over the bottom of the form and press the wood form with the paper rolled around it into its wooden stand. No glue, clips or rubberbands are needed to hold it together. Next, remove the pot from the form.

Set pots filled with soil and seeds into trays without holes in the bottom. Water the plants from the bottom. When seedlings are ready to be planted, set them directly into the earth. There is no need to disturb the root ball by removing the paper which will decompose once the pot is planted.

For larger pots, you'll need to use a larger form. As the PotMaker^® comes only in one size, Nugent advises you can improvise one by using an empty champagne bottle. Roll wider strips of paper on the bottom of a champagne bottle; fold the protruding sides into the center. Carefully set it on the table and pull the bottle out. To flatten the bottom of the pot, make a fist and gently press it inside the pot.

The PotMaker^® is available at various online retailers including Burpee http://www.burpee.com.

Break a dish? Replacements are just a store or a click away. Maybe you can fix it with super glue and nobody will be the wiser. But it was different a century ago. People said, "Waste not, want not" and used whatever was at hand to salvage broken everyday items.

This Gourd bowl is mended with string. A cobbler drilled tiny holes into the wood before lacing it together.

Bonnie Grossman, owner of the Ames Gallery in Berkeley, California, appreciates the ingenious ways people salvaged their belongings 100 years ago, "the heyday of repair." Her extensive collection of "fixed" objects includes mended picture frames, kitchen items, farm implements, textiles (including socks and aprons) and decorative items. "Bowls are the most plentiful and easiest objects to find," she said. To her, the mender's imagination and skill transform these broken everyday pieces into extraordinary design.

This glass balances on a base of hard leather. Bonnie Grossman believes the leather and glass have been reglued many times.

Looking at them, one wonders--why mend rather than replace? Did the object have sentimental value? Was it too difficult to get to a town with a "shopping center" to buy another? Bonnie suggests that necessity dictated many repairs. "If you didn't repair a glass, someone might have to do without it at dinner....The tinker happened to pass through a good month before the peddler did, so you had the tinker fix something rather than waiting to buy a new one."

Staples bind the pieces of a fractured plate together.

In today's disposable society these objects are a reminder of an era when people had to figure out how to patch things up-- or else do without them.

Eggs, pasta, a potato, pickles. And your boyfriend's mother arrived unannounced and hungry. It's a universal problem--what to do when the fridge or cupboard is low. Whether you've forgotten to go shopping, are housebound by bad weather, or feeding an unexpected guest, sooner or later everyone has to figure out how to make a meal from what's on hand.

If you feel unimaginative, take heart-- there's now help on the web. Check out the British site, Cooking by Numbers. Indicate on checklists what you have in the fridge and the cupboard, and the site will provide recipes that use those items. A few terms may be unfamiliar to Americans, but the instructions are simple and you can improvise what can't be figured out. If you're not in a crisis, play with the combinations for a while. It will give you a good idea about what three or four staples to always stash away for a rainy day.

We've added these eco-related books to our bookstore. Read the full review.

In Stuff, The Secret Lives of Everyday Things, John C. Ryan and Alan Thein Durning investigate the resources used to produce things we use everyday (coffee, shoes, and a can of cola). They offer environmentally-friendly alternatives.

Danny Seo's new book, Conscious Style Home: Eco-Friendly Living for the 21st Century, provides room-by-room tips for transforming any home into a bright and eco-friendly place to nest. Photos show how he's used these ideas to redo his parent's typical suburban home. Best of all, the fix-up materials and furnishings are reasonably priced and easy to find.

Salvage Style: 45 Home and Garden Projects Using Re claimed Architectural Details (Joe Rhatigan and Dana Irwin) shows how to create new objects from old, weathered pieces removed from renovated or demolished homes or buildings. Projects for the novice to master craftsperson.

Designer Dorothy Spencer's Found Object Art, an astonishing and lavishly illustrated compendium, shows how 76 creative artists transformed people's trash into visual treasures. Objects include a chest of drawers made from detergent boxes and other found materials, a sculpture made from military zippers, a basket woven from Sunday comics, and a dress consisting of bottle caps