Creative Jim has recycled sets of pipes into decorative garden art.
Hundreds of plants owe their thriving existence to an enthusiastic Barrack Heights recycler by the name of Jim Chapman.
His Cassia Street garden, front and back, is awash with plants he has salvaged from the Dunmore Recycling and Waste Disposal Depot over the past 25 years.
"I'm no longer allowed to go there because they are enforcing health and safety regulations but I'm not worried because the garden is more or less completed," he says.
Chapman, a retired environmental technician, discovered the dumped plants when he visited the tip to pick up some free mulch.
"As well as the mulch I discovered there was also a range of plants such as orchids, bromeliads (first cousin to pineapple) and agapanthus," he recalls.
"The bromeliads are my favourite because they are so exotic and give off up to four pups a plant which are off-shoots that can be planted independently."
Chapman thinks the plants at the tip come from deceased estates or development sites.
"Those places are often demolished by professional clearance teams and they don't give a damn about the plants," he says.
"I once went down to the tip after a local nursery went bust and there were plants everywhere, enough to fill a garden."
Chapman says he has priced the plants at major nurseries and found them selling at anything up to $25 each.
"I've also picked up terracotta pavers, broken slate pavers and bricks which I used to make a footpath through the garden," he says.
Chapman says his wife, Judith, does not get the same thrill from wandering about the tip looking for goodies for the home.
"She considers it my hobby and leaves me to it," he says with a laugh.
Chapman, originally from the UK, says he inherited his love of plants from his father, who was accredited by the Royal Horticultural Society in Chelsea to judge vegetable entries.
FAVOURITE FINDS
• Decorative wall stones - I found 16 and used them to disguise the compost heap.