Tutorial: How To Make Self Watering Planters

I've been wanting to make these for a long time. Since I don't often have plastic pop bottles lying around the house, it took awhile to gather enough supplies. I made three or four of these a week ago and they are a definite success. The soil stays moist without any extra watering from me. The basic idea is that you fill the bottom part of the planter with water, have one side of the yarn resting in the water, while the other reaches up into the soil.  You won't need to water them everyday, simply refill the reservoir  when it gets low.

Supplies you will need in addition to a medium sized plastic pop bottle:

 hammer

screwdriver

scissors

yarn

Instructions:

* Start by cutting the pop bottle in half. I like to keep the top half (the one with the cap) longer than the bottom so there is a lot of room for growth. 

* Poke a hole in the cap of the bottle with a screwdriver and hammer. This is the most difficult part. As you can see in the above photo, my screwdriver is stuck to the popcap. 

* Thread a piece of yarn through the pop bottle cap so that there is an equal amount of yarn on either side.

* Put the top end of the bottle inside the bottom part of the bottom with the cap facing down. 

* Fill the bottom portion with water. This is your reservoir

* Fill the top portion with dirt and plant your seeds! Make sure that the yarn is buried partway up the bottle so the moistened yarn will reach up to the roots.

You can also put starts in these. I've currently got radish, sage, dill and carrots growing!

Some of you may remember making these in grade school.  Unfortunately, I missed out on that so am catching up:)

Make sure to check out some of my other gardening DIYs:

Toilet Paper Roll Seed Starters

Mini Greenhouses

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Spring Projects Part One: Avocado Trees

I'm a huge fan of guacamole. If I could grow a guacamole tree I would. Since those don't exist (yet) I'll have to settle for the next best thing, which is an avocado tree. Unfortunately, my little tree will probably never bear fruit seeing as how I live in the wrong climate. I've seen these done a few times and I've always been enamored of the large seed in the center of this delicious fruit. Here's a short how-to on getting your own avocado tree!

What you'll need:
+ one avocado pit
+ one Dixie cup
+ 3 or 4 toothpicks

 Poke your toothpicks into the pit so that the pit can be suspended above the cup. Fill your cup with water so that the pit is submerged. Add water over time to keep the water touching. I've started a few of these and have learned the hard way on them. Benefit from my mistakes!


Do Try your hand on a few pits at once. If one doesn't sprout it won't be all for nothing.
Do Place the bottom (larger end) of the pit about 1/4 in the water. Thats the end the sprout will come from.

Don't Place in direct sunlight for long periods of time
Don't Expect them to sprout right away. It could take a couple months!

Click here for part two in Spring Projects: A Self Watering Pop Bottle Planter!

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