Few nights ago, my brother decided to treat me some snacks in 7/11. It was just few meters away from our house so we just decided to walk. I was not that hungry so I picked two bottles of chocolate-flavored soya milk. Of course! I just had my dinner. Haha! Upon chugging, my conscience have thought of the empty plastic bottles. Oh well! My actions and reactions towards mother earth really changed after working under a line bureau of Department of Environmental and Natural Resources. You know, I started recycling and reusing products to minimize the amount of household waste. I also try not to buy a lot of stuff at home.
I asked myself then, shall I reuse this one? Probably not because I think it is unsafe. I better use it for something that I love doing and that is arts and crafts! And since I really love to plant crops and succulent, I am going to turn it into my seedling containers! I had been spending a lot too in buying expensive pots and containers.
Anyway, this used to be a project for elementary students and I remember making one before so this just serves to be a reminder to us all. Haha!
So here are the materials needed:
Plastic bottle (ideally the one with thinner body so that you could easily cut it) I repeat plastic bottle and not a plastic friend.
Hahaha
Scissors/Cutter or whatever you prefer
Nylon/ yarn / thin rope
Enough amount of soil for your seedlings
Enough amount of seedlings
Washi tapes / latex paint for design
Procedure:
It is essential to clean the bottles properly. Open the bottle and allow the water with soap to flow the bottle inside. Shake the water well so that you can get rid of the residues. After cleaning, return the cap of the bottle.
So you see, I was working on our kitchen's lavatory so that I could easily use the trash box (which is not seen) behind me. Also, it is for me to make sure that there is no liquid content in the bottles anymore. The residue might spoil and may cause a smell.
Cut a rectangle-shaped opening using your scissors so that you can put your seedlings inside it. Make sure you do not hurt yourself from cutting. I used scissors because I would likely have a cut if I use a knife of cutter. Well, it happens a lot to me though so it is not new.
So, upon cutting the bottle, I really saw some residues left. I decided to clean it throughly after with running water and dishwashing soap.
If you want, you can be artsy and decorate your seedling container/ plant holder with washi tape. Department stores and book stores are selling washi tapes with unique designs just for a dollar or two! Daiso is even selling lace tapes which is only for 88 or 99 Php (almost two dollars).
You can draw sunshine, sunset, sunrise, sea shells, or other designs that you like. You can design your water bottles according to the theme that you want for your garden! You can even write the name of your plant so that you can easily identify it from the rest when it is growing. You can also use latex paint to design your container. This is advisable for plants that need a lot of sunlight and rain.
Of course, you need wait for the paint to dry if you are using one. You might end up having a messy design if you decided to paint wet on wet.
For the sake of providing an example, I used washi tapes. It did not take me a lot of time because I only need to stick the washi tape on the areas you want to design. IAside from that, I decided to use washi tape because I only need to spray few amount of water for my seedlings because it might die by drowning the roots and the leaves of the plant. I just made sure that the water container would be placed away from rainfall so that the design would not easilly fade away.
Put the soil inside the container and make sure that all spaces will be filled. Make sure that the soil is enough so that it would not overflow when you try to water your plant. The soil that I used is mixed with rice hull because I find my plants in good condition with this soil type. Another lady who is working as a gardener told me awhile ago that using compost soil is better because it has more nutrients needed.
Tie the end of the bottle with your yarn or rope, and tie the other end too so that you could hang your container and conserve more space at home.
These are seedlings of "Mother of Millions". The plant propagates very fast than the other variety of succulents. It is also low maintenance so I chose its seedlings. The other one is a grown "seaweeds" that my aunt gave me.
You can also choose a different variety of seedlings to plant. You just need to make sure that it fits inside the bottle container and that when it grows, you can easily transfer the seedlings.
Pro-tip: Some people prefer not to design their containers because could easily check the status of the soil when the container is transparents. Snails can easily be seen too if the containers are transparent.
Have you also tried to recycle your water bottles at home or even at work? Or do you have any other idea? Share it here with me! I also love learning more about recycling our wastes instead of throwing them instantly. You can also e-mail me at [email protected].
Thank you for reading and have a great day to us all!