A little bit of recycling

Getting the children involved in gardening is a great thing to do and in order to keep them busy and learning at the same time, I gave my two the task of creating small pots out of old newspapers. I'm not really a newspaper person but my mother is so on our last visit to her I asked if she could put aside some old newspapers for me to take home.

The issue I have with using plastic pots is that I don't have a lot (well, certainly not the right size for the right purpose) and they aren't widely recycled so when they break they tend to go to landfill owing to the material that they are made of (polypropylene). So to make a better effort this year and to educate my children on good gardening habits, I had them making these little pots from newspaper to use for sowing more seed.

It wasn't a difficult thing to do as I only had to show my two how to make them once, with just two items: a toilet roll and a few strips of newspaper (cut to the right size for what I need them for). It takes four easy steps to make these:

1. Cut your newspaper to the desired height you want your little pots to be. I used a toilet roll to use as a mould for mine (cutting it in half so I could see how tall it should be).
2. Roll the newspaper around your chosen mould (this could also be a small glass, jar or anything else that is round that comes in handy).
3. Fold the bottom over to cover one end, making the bottom of your pot.
4. Remove your mould carefully. This will leave you with a good, round pot to use.

 Using your chosen object as a mould, roll the paper around it carefully to create a smooth, round shape.

 Folding the bottom over creates your pot before removing the mould.

And there you have it: some useful bits of used newspaper!

I'm really hoping that these will come in useful for sensitive plants such as peas, which I'm told by many an experienced gardener, do not like their roots being touched. Due to this, I've always sown peas directly in to the soil but last year either very few peas germinated or I had some pests eating the young plants!

Peas in paper

I've also gone and used the cardboard left over from toilet rolls. These are a good height and I'm going to use them for sweet peas, which I don't often grow. Unfortunately I've not been too successful in the past either from seeds not germinating or just growing on. Late last year I thought I'd try to grow sweet peas from seed very early and my experience was that there was not enough light, which meant poor germination and those that did germinate became leggy and died. Very frustrating!

 I filled these two thirds of the height with soil, added my sweet pea seeds and topped with more soil. I also covered them to protect them from pests.

And finally...

The heated propagators have finally worked their magic and seeds have started to germinate. Not all types have been successful yet (leeks, some aubergine varieties). The artichokes have all come up now and some varieties of cherry tomatoes and one aubergine. It takes a lot of patience sometimes but when these things happen it puts a smile on my face!

 Artichoke seedling

Tomato seedlings

Until next time.