Making a Recycled Pot

Day 5

Well, Happy Memorial Day to all first off. With a wonderful day off today I decided it must be time to plant some seeds. I have one recycled pot from the tomato plant, but still needed something for the others. I have seen many different and excellent ideas for planting with recycled products, like the newspaper planting pots. But since I have a lack of newspaper I decided to make a pot out of a empty water bottle.

I think it's so ridiculous that I can't recycle these bottles in the state where I live. (If you look on the back you will notice you they are only accepted in 3 or 4 states!) So let's find another use for it.

You are going to start by gathering your supplies. You will need a hammer, a nail, razor blade, and a clean water bottle. If you want to just make a simple plastic cup seedling planter you will need an razor and plastic cups. (I will talk about that later!)
So now that you have all your items, we are going to poke hole in the top of the water bottle cap. This will all for excess water to drain out of your pot. Take the nail and hammer a few holes, 3-5 should be plenty.
Now take the bottle and cut it just under the label.
With it cut in half just below the label, you will have enough room to tip the top of the bottle upside down and place it in the lower half. This extra room will be enough to keep the bottle from tipping over. The bottom will also help catch excess water, making this a good pot to put in a window with little mess.
Now you are ready to fill your bottle with dirt and plant your seeds!
If you want to use plastic cups the process for potting in these is simple. Take a small clean plastic cup or a large clean party cup. Take your razor or nail and poke 3-5 holes in the bottom of the cup, to allow for water drainage. Now add your soil and plant!

Now all my plants are successfully potted. You may choose to re-pot them but make sure you carefully read the labels of your seed packets. I decided to pot my cilantro in the old tomato pot because these plants don't re-pot well. This will be a good permanent home for my cilantro. Be sure also that you are paying close attention to how deep you are planting all plants and the space they may need to be separated from other seeds.

Also, make sure you do not make the mistake of watering your plants to hard. The seeds will come right out of the dirt defeating the purpose. Gently water your seeds and enjoy watching your garden grow.