Start a Garden From Scratch From Scraps
Introduction: Start a Garden From Scratch From Scraps
Going green, growing local, these are the calls of environmentalists and penny pinchers alike, but setting up a garden can be a rather costly business. Between the seeds, soil, pots, fertiliser, supports, even the most advantageous gumtree or freecycle user will struggle not to accumulate costs of £50-100+. This guide hopes to provide readers at the start of their gardening journey with free alternatives, all from recycled and repurposed everyday kitchen and household waste.
You will learn
* How to make hanging plant pots from tin cans
* How to find and regenerate soil
* How to collect and activate seeds from food scraps
* How to build a germination chamber
Supplies
Plant Pots
* Tin cans
* Hammer
* Nail / Small Screwdriver
* Rope/Thread (optional)
* Acryllic Paint (optional)
* Smashed Cultery/rocks (optional)
* Soil
Germination Container
* 3 Transparent Grapes Containers or similar
* Superglue
* Cellotape
* Plastic Egg Cartons
Seed Cultivation and Collection
* Little plastic bag (reuse from lunch/electronics components)
* Selection food scraps (carrot tops, peach pits, avocado seeds, peppers, tomatoes)
* Toothpicks/Sharp Twigs
Soil Regeneration
* Eggshell
Step 1: Plant Pots - Cleaning
* Collect a selection of tin cans, 3 - 5 is a good starting point, ensuring that the lids rip cleanly from the outer cases. Tins with sharp inner edges should be discarded, you will cut your hands putting the soil in.
* Soak the cans in warm soapy water to help remove the outer labels, they should peel away easily. You may use a knife to scratch off the worst of the glue.
Step 2: Plant Pots - Construction
Drainage Holes
A plant pot requires drainage holes to ensure moist, but not waterlogged soil. A good spread of holes being preferable. Turn the cans upside down and mark the hole positions, I chose nine regularly spaced holes to ensure good drainage while not comprising the containers integrity. These holes were created by hammering a small screwdriver into the cans, but a single nail can also be used.
Hanging Holes
Two holes were then nailed into the rim of the can on opposing sides, it is through these that ropes can be knotted to hang the pot. 389
Holding the can against a corner helps prevent slipping when you hammer against the curved surface.
Cleanup
Creating these holes can leave sharp points of metal on the inside of the tin. This doesn't matter at the bottom of the can, as the soil will cover these, but those along the rim should be flattened using a screwdriver or optionally trimmed using cutters.
Top Tip
A common problem with plant containers is that the drainage holes become blocked with wedged soil. To prevent this drainage stones are often added, but if you ever smash cutlery in the kitchen, this can also make great brokerage at the bottom of your pots.
Disclaimer: No ceramics were hurt as a means to produce this Instructable, I'm just clumsy.
Step 3: Plant Pots - Hanging & Decoration
Hanging
String/rope can be threaded and knotted through each side of the can. These knots can be largely covered by keeping a higher soil level in the container for a cleaner finish. However I recommend ensuring a gap at the top of the can, this allows room for watering, reduces soil loss and allows more efficient plant cuttings.
Painting
While they can be left plain, I chose to custom decorate my plant pots in a variety of pride flag colours (LGBT, Trans, Asexual, Bisexual and Lesbian). They also benefited from the fact that the straight ridges in the can made easy lines to follow to mark the flags.
Cheap starter acrylic paint kits can be bought from as little as £10 online, and acrylic while water based, is water resistant. These photos were taken 2 months after first hanging and despite heavy rainful and hitting the balcony side many times in winds, the paint has held up very well.
Step 4: Getting & Restoring Soil
From the Garden
If you have access to a garden, this is the most promising option . However in the absence of quality top soil found in flower beds and cabbage patches there are some good rules of thumbs to identify whether soil is ideal for growing
* Soil when clumped in the hand and released, should crumble out of the grasp. Hard, or clay like soil that sticks together is unsuitable for growing. 353