Up-cycled Planters

Welcome to the Kids Korner- the place where we show you how to bring your little ones into the garden. Each month we bring you ideas on how to spend time with your children, how to embrace their creativity and enable you to spend quality time with them outdoors.

With Earth Day in a week’s time and Awareness in the air, we are excited to bring you these simple fun projects that the kids can enjoy making. We are passionate about recycling, and so we have come up with some innovative ways to  utilise your trash in the most resourceful way- as garden planters for herbs, flowers and vegetables.

Old Tin Can Planters

Rescue those dog food or jam tin cans from the refuse bin! Wash them out and pierce some holes in the bottom of each can for drainage.

Pierce two holes in the top sides, through which ribbon or rope can be threaded.

Remove the labels and recycle those with the rest of your paper waste.

The kids can now paint the cans in funky colours, spray paint them, or adhere all manners of decorative items to their planters.

Plant the cans up with seasonal flowers or vegetable seedlings, or herbs. Use pebbles at the base to encourage good drainage, and use a good quality potting soil.

Thread rope or ribbon through the top holes and hang around the garden and patio.

Milk Jug Planters

Milk jugs should be washed in hot water to remove all traces of dairy.

Cut off the bottom half of the jug. Pierce holes in the base for drainage.

Plant up strawberry seedlings and other autumnal vegetable seedlings.

Place these conveniently flat-bottomed planters on windowsills or stack them on stairways.

To utilise the tops of the milk jugs, ensure the cap is screwed on tightly, and invert the jug to use as a hanging planter, in a similar way as described for the tin can planters.

Toilet Paper Roll Planters

These amazing little cylinders can be used in a host of ways- and most definitely in the garden!

Place 6 or 8 toilet paper rolls in an ice cream tub or plastic container you don’t mind getting dirty.

Let the kids fill each toilet roll with seedling mix.

Plant up seeds for germination in the autumn months. We recommend Asian greens, Beetroot, Broad Beans, Cabbage, Red Cabbage, Kale, Kohlrabi, Celery, Chinese Cabbage, Carrots, Leeks, Lettuce, Onions, Parsnips, Peas, Radish, Spinach, Swiss Chard and Turnips. For a complete sowing guide for April click |HERE|

Allow the seeds to germinate. Once they have reached the stage where they are safe to transplant into the garden, take the entire toilet roll and plant it into the prepared bed or pot. There is no need to removed the seedling from the toilet roll. How amazing is that!?

What innovative upcycling projects are you busy with? Tag us on social media using the tag @lifestylehomegarden so that we can see your posts.

Have you read about our Earth day campaign? Click |HERE| to read all about what we are doing for Earth Day 2019.

Have you read our Kids Korner post all about getting your kids into the garden? Read it |HERE|

We would love to see what you and your children get up to in the garden! Tag us on Instagram using the hashtags  #lifestylehomegarden and #lifestylekidskorner and the tag @LifestyleHomeGarden so that we can see your posts!