Posts Tagged ‘containers’

In an article on his blog Container Garden, Willhelm van Cottem, (an honorary professor at the University of Ghent) discusses how container gardening can be used to combat hunger, poverty, and desertification. With great pictures of successful container gardens from Malawi, he notes that the seeds were provided by an organization that he runs – Seeds for Food.  The plants were grown from seeds that would have been thrown in the garbage, and were planted using containers and plastic bags that would have ended up as litter. If you’re interested in international development, I recommend checking this out.

A fun story about Toronto resident and urban gardener Gayla Trail by Ozman Omar, published in the Toronto Observer. From the article, “Gardener turns urban space to her advantage”: “Trail doesn’t have the luxury of a yard, so she tries housing her plants in just about anything. Shallow-rooted plants such as lettuce, radishes and strawberries get grown in wooden drawers, and deeper-rooted plants such as chives, in metal garbage bins.” Interesting reuse of metal garbage bins!  I’ve also heard of them being fashioned as rain barrels and potato bins.  I wonder if she’s ever considered self watering planters to help mediate the harsh rooftop conditions?

In a previous post, I discussed the anatomy of a self-watering planter, and how you can put items that you’d normally throw into the recycling bin and put them to productive use.  In my household, we eat a lot of yogurt.  Several months ago, we made the switch to the larger, quart-sized containers to save money.  These larger containers also happen to be perfect for making herb planters. Step 1 For this project you will need: 2 quart-sized yogurt containers – It makes it easier if one is slightly larger than the other.  In this case, I used Dannon and Stonyfield Farms.  They fit together like a puzzle and seem to be made specifically for this purpose. 1 8-oz yogurt container – There are many brands with the tapered shape and foil top.  Any one will do. A straw or plastic tube – You can get an extra from a

Once you understand the concept of making self watering planters out of yogurt containers, you’ll never look at your recycling bin the same way again.  The principles used in converting yogurt containers can be used with a variety of materials.  I currently have a collection of sour cream, ricotta cheese, and margarine containers – plus tin cans that once held crushed tomatoes, beans, and soup.  I have big plans of reusing these treasures as planters (self-watering and otherwise). The cross section below illustrates the basic workings of the self-watering yogurt container planter.  It contains four parts (two containers, a wicking chamber, and filling tube).  As you can see, the soil in the wicking chamber stays moist from the water in the outer container.  Moisture deep in the soil encourages large tap roots to form, as opposed to weaker surface roots that often develop when watering containers from the top. The