I was around a lot of gardeners growing up, it seems like everyone in our family has a passion for gardening. Both my sets grandparents were big into gardening and farming and my Mom's Dad is even a master gardener. I find gardening to be a very satisfying hobby, there aren't many things better than growing your own vegetables.
Spring is quickly approaching, I do a lot of seed saving and always try and plant everything from seed as opposed to buying seedlings from the local green houses. It only takes a little bit of pre-planning and saves you quite a bit of money in the long run. In the past I've bought compostable pots to plant in but this year I wanted to try making my own out of newspaper. I did a bit of research and settled on a process that was easy and quick.
Supplies:
Newspaper
Cylindrical shape for pot mold (I used a beer bottle)
Container of water
Tray for finished pots, I like to use an old cookie sheet
(mason jar of beer for drinking is optional)
Spring is quickly approaching, I do a lot of seed saving and always try and plant everything from seed as opposed to buying seedlings from the local green houses. It only takes a little bit of pre-planning and saves you quite a bit of money in the long run. In the past I've bought compostable pots to plant in but this year I wanted to try making my own out of newspaper. I did a bit of research and settled on a process that was easy and quick.
Supplies:
Newspaper
Cylindrical shape for pot mold (I used a beer bottle)
Container of water
Tray for finished pots, I like to use an old cookie sheet
(mason jar of beer for drinking is optional)
take a sheet of newspaper and fold it over two thirds of the way, this will be the height of your pot.
Wrap the newspaper around your cylindrical mold loosely, you'll need to remove it later. Use something thats the size of the pot you like, I wanted a smaller pot so I used a beer bottle but you can also use a can, mason jar, tumbler; anything that you can wrap the paper around. Make sure to wrap only the doubled up section of your paper around the jar leaving the single ply above the bottom of the jar.
now you're ready fold the bottom of the paper to form the bottom of the pot, do this as neatly as possible, it doesn't need to be perfect.
Now that you have your bottom formed, dip it into your container of water for a few seconds, until it's saturated. The water will hold the pot together with the moisture. Feel free to wet the side of the pot as well, though it's not necessary.
You should now be able to slip your pot off of your mold, it's beautiful!
Continue and you'll have a tray of pots in no time, simply fill them with dirt and you're ready to plant. The moister from the soil will continue to hold the pots together and you can plant these right into the soil outside come spring.