Self - Watering Pot

Made from old plastic bottles

To begin this project, You will need:

An empty plastic bottle..
Natural Garden twine or string.
A knife or scissors.
Something pointy or a drill (to poke a hole in the bottle cap)
Compost, Soil or another type of growing medium.

Next, Cut the bottle in half along the green line, You want the top half to be about 2/3 the size of the bottom half.

A knife is the best method of doing this but scissors can be used too.

Once cut in half, Your bottle will resemble something like this.

Now mark where your hole is going to go in the centre of the bottle cap.

Once your hole is poked in the top of the bottle, you need to ensure that it is wide enough for your twine / string to fit through.

Now cut a piece of twine that is as long as your bottle lengthwise.

This will act as the wick for drawing the water from the reservoir into the pot using capillary action.

Feed the Twine through the hole and into the top half of the bottle.

You want enough to be level with the cut edge.

Place the top half of the bottle upside down into the bottom half of the bottom, and ensure that the wick reaches the bottom of the bottle.

The top half will become the pot and the bottom half will become the reservoir.

Then fill the top half with potting soil, ensuring the wick is distributed evenly among the soil, then add a plant of your choice,

I chose a Strawberry for mine, with the Wick running to the base of its roots.

Then remove the top half and fill the bottom half (the reservoir) with water, to just below where the cap is when the top half is seated in the bottom.

The water will begin to travel up the Wick using capillary action straight to the base of the plant.

Here is what your finished project should resemble.

Things to remember:

Ensure you keep the reservoir filled and ensure the wick is undamaged, otherwise you'll have to perform some maintainence and add a new Wick.

Change the water regularly and mind there is no Algae build up, As this will affect the wicking capabilities. (shown in the bottle on the right of the image above) Just wipe the reservior clean now and then to keep Algae away.

Seed Starter Tray

Made from old Tetrapack Cartons

To begin this Project, You will need:

An old empty carton that has been thoroughly rinsed out.

A knife or scissors.

Compost, Potting soil or another type of growing medium.

To begin, Place your container with the lid facing downwards as shown.

Then cut out a rectangular section about 10mm or 1cm from the edges of the carton face.

You can decide here whether or not you want to completely remove the rectangular section or if you want to keep one edge attached to be folded back to form the label.

For mine I opted to completely cut out the section as I want the label to be removable to make it easier to write on.

I then folded a 30mm long section backwards in order to be used as a tab to keep the label in place.

Your project should thusfar look similar to this

Now add your soil or compost up to the top and gently firm it down.

If you opted to cut your label off, now insert it back at the top end of your carton and fold it back to it stays stood up.

Label the container accordingly depending on what you'll be growing in it, For examplke, Herbs.

Your Finished Project should now look similar to this, I'll be using mine to grow Herbs such as Basil and Coriander, Which will be started Indoors.

Things to remember:

Because there are no drainage holes in this project, be careful you do not overwater your seedlings, If they become drastically overwatered you can remove the cap to allow water to drain out.

Similarly to the project above, This can be modified to add a Wick using some natural cordage, String or Twine which can be inserted through the cap and into the tray, This will allow it be become self watering if the other end is left in a water reservoir