My husband is so awesome – and in a lot of ways we are a lot alike! We share craft ideas constantly with each other! We are ALWAYS crafting something up! AND….this is our recycled attempt to start our seedlings out indoors: We started with soup cans that we had been saving (with labels removed, top removed, and inside thoroughly cleaned out). We made sure to use our handy side-opening can opener so that there were no sharp top edges:
Grab a few supplies: A hammer, and straight nail (not a screw):
Gently tap the nail into the bottom of each can. I did about four holes in the bottom of each. It will work much better if the nail holes are spread out as pictured:
A drip tray was needed here and usually works best for most plants to drain properly. We found a clear ham & cheese tray that we had saved for recycling….so we just “recycled” it into a new purpose… And, what do you know, the soup cans fit perfectly inside!
Here they are after just being watered: I choose to leave my cans plain, BUT if you are doing this project with the kids it would be a terrific idea to add some color to the soup cans with construction paper, stickers, or chalkboard paint!
Look! It’s only day two, and I see a snap pea sprout emerging! How exciting!:
And now for our home-made recycled Terrarium! (Designed by my wonderful hubby!):
Here’s what it looks like open… Right now it’s hosting a wet bed for some starter sugar snap peas and heirloom pear tomatoes. Yum! I can taste them now!
My husband, Steven, cut out both sides from the top of one egg carton with an exacto knife. Then, he cut out 2 pieces of plastic off of a take home restaurant container, and attached them into the underside of the egg carton lid with double-sided sticky tape. (Note: glue gun will not work here…will only melt the Styrofoam.) You probably could also try plain Elmer’s glue as well.
Here is our “window garden”…growing so lovely! The snap peas are starting to come up after only 2 days! New growth and new life makes me sooo excited!
We also had realized that we needed some drainage in our recycled Terrarium…so, we 1)poked holes in the bottom of each egg cup with a toothpick, and then… 2) took another lid off a 2ND egg carton, and placed the lid on the underside of the Terrarium. And voila! It worked great! What an awesome and easy project for kids..or just those who frequently forget to keep their plants watered (like me!)!
