Tuesday, April 9, 2013

Making Recycled Mini-Greenhouses

Use Milk jugs to make mini-greenhouses.


With the return of warm weather comes the time to start the garden.  Although in many zones, seed can be sown directly into the ground now, chances are there are a few varieties of plant that should be started inside.  Some examples of plants that need an indoor start in most cases are peppers, tomatoes, and celery.  Rather than buy trays for starting your seeds, why not collect some of the plastic waste that is already in your recycling bin to reuse?  Milk jugs, vinegar jugs, and clear packages that often hold cupcakes or cookies make great mini-greenhouses.

Materials:

  • Plastic containers
  • Heavy duty scissors (a woodburning tool would also work well for this)
  • Packing tape
  • Soil
  • Seeds
Directions:

1. For jugs, cut around the middle leaving the top and bottom connected in a small space.
    Making mini greenhouses out of milk and vinegar jugs

  1. 2. Discard lids, and poke holes in the bottom for drainage.
  2.  Add about three inches of soil, and soak the soil.  Let the soil drain completely before planting about four seeds.
  3. Tape the jugs back together.  Supposedly you can leave these little greenhouses outside even in the winter, but thus far I've had better luck with the ones that only go outside on nice days.  
  4. For the clear bakery containers, follow the same steps, but poke holes in the top and bottom.  There's no need for cutting or taping because the container opens nicely and snaps back shut.
  5. Place containers next to a window that gets direct sunlight, and add a light if possible.
Tutorial to make your own mini greenhouses

Tutorial to make your own mini greenhouses

Tutorial to make your own mini greenhouses

Tutorial to make your own mini greenhouses

This week I'm featuring some of my favorite Eco Kids links from last week.  They are all great tips for using around the home:


OrangeCleanerJar

IMG_0995
If you were featured today, please share this button on your site!
  Organic Aspirations
<a href="http://organicaspirations.blogspot.com/search/label/Eco%20Kids" target="_blank"><img src="http://i1172.photobucket.com/albums/r577/Becki_Lewis/FeaturedonEcoKidsTuesdays.jpg" alt="Organic Aspirations" width="125" height="125" /></a>
***********

Please join me for the Eco-Kids Linky!  I hope that you'll share some great family-friendly posts that are also friendly for the environment. Some ideas include:
  •  Nature Activities
  • Outdoor Activities
  • Crafts made with re-purposed or recycled materials
  • Sewing and DIY home projects
  • Science Experiments
  • Posts on environmental issues for kids or families
  • Non-toxic living
  • Homeopathic Remedies
Eco-Kids Tuesdays is co-hosted by Organic Aspirations and Like Mama~Like Daughter. This means that anything you link-up shows up on both blogs!
Feel free to link up several of your posts.

There are only a few rules:

Please follow both co-hostess' blogs, and visit some of the other posts and give them some encouragement!   Please stick to posts and photos not giveaways or items for sale.

By linking up, you are agreeing that Organic Aspirations or Like Mama~Like Daughter can feature your photos next week with a link back to your site.  

 Please link back to my site using this button:
Organic Aspirations

<a href="http://organicaspirations.blogspot.com
 /search/label/Eco%20Kids" target="_blank"><img
src="http://i1172.photobucket.com/albums/r577/Becki_Lewis/EcoKidsTuesdays.jpg" alt="Organic Aspirations" width="125" height="125" /></a>

4 comments:

  1. Oh I love the mini green houses! And thanks so much for hosting each week!

    ReplyDelete
  2. You should see the pile of salad and fruit containers just waiting to be tured into mii greenhouses!

    ReplyDelete
  3. thanks for hosting! We too have a large berry container collection and seeds to grow -thanks for sharing this great idea!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Add about three inches of soil, and soak the soil. Let the soil drain completely before planting about four seeds. www.greenhousesblog.co.uk

    ReplyDelete