These are simple two minute ( let's say almost instant) DIY's. It's been raining incessantly here and there is not much I can do in the garden. However, this is the best season to start new plants from seeds or from cuttings. Which means I need a number of new planters. I am not going out in this weather to buy planters, I have had terrible experiences with buying plastic planters online. I have a whole lot of waste, natural and plastic material lying around the house which need to be recycled.
This first one is a discarded piece of a soda bottle. I had used the bottom to plant some cuttings already. The top portion is used as a little green house to protect baby plants, however, in this weather I have no need for greenhouses. the weather is perfect for growing seedlings and cuttings so I decided to use the top as a planter.
In my junk pile I searched for covers of deodorants covers. I found this one, strong and the perfect stand for my two minute DIY container.
I made a hole in the deodorant cover with soldering iron to be able to fit the neck of the bottle into it.
After inserting the neck of the soda bottle into the cover of the deodorant
I screwed on the cap of the soda bottle. I had made a hole for drainage in this cap. Here you go a free, sturdy planter is ready for starting a new plant. I have planted hibiscus cuttings in this one and left it out in a shaded area of my garden to root.
The next is a coconut husk planter. My husband's home has a few coconut trees around it and so we have a lot of waste from the coconut trees which need to be recycled. This DIY is a very basic recycling method. Once the coconut has been dehusked this outer covering is often burned or thrown into the waste. In olden days this was the fuel used for cooking food. To be honest once the husk is dried it burns so fiercely that cooking for a whole house hold was easy. Now, of course in a city we would be raising an alarm if we burn these husks. I use the husk and fiber in the garden in various ways. These are a great substrate for orchids and other epiphitic plants. The fiber when shredded down to a coarse dust is a great substrate for plants. This coconut fiber or cocopeat is a light weight replacement for soil which is heavy and a great moisture retainer for our subtropical conditions.
The coconut is dehusked in a contraption which splits the outer shell into four or five pieces. We would need two or three pieces for our project, a piece of wire, a sharp instrument and we are ready to go. If the shell has been rightly processed to wash of the acidity in it this can be used to grow plants.
I basically (very roughly) tied up the pieces with a wire by making holes in the edges and running the wire through them. Then I made a handle to hang up the coconut planter. If left on the ground this could become a host for various kinds of critters like centipedes and multipedes.
In this particular shell there was a lot of the coir/fiber left behind which had to be removed to create a space for
plants.
The fiber you remove could be shredded into bits and used for growing plants which is what I did here. I added very little compost into the mix and planted these plants which love this substrate.
The next planter was made from the flower sheath of the coconut tree. This looks like an elongated boat. I cut this down to size since I wanted to hang this in my balcony. Then I painted it with some black and reddish shades to make it look natural while make it a bit more durable. I then painted the outside with a clear coat of varnish. The next step was to make holes in the edges to hang it up. I used a wire to make a handle. (I didn't do much here so I am not posting pictures of the process.)
Then I planted some baby's tears (four days ago) and here it is doing pretty well when I hung it outside in the rain.
Do you think this is a good way to recycle? Would you consider these planters cute? I think these are simple and easy ways to recycle stuff that would other wise end in the landfills.