Recycle Newspapers into Garden Planting Pots

Are you a gardener looking to reduce costs? Growing plants and vegetables from seed is a great place to start. In an effort to reduce costs. Why not make your own seed starting pots? All you need is some saved newspapers and a pot mold. This is a fun way to mass produce seedlings. You can make hundreds of newspaper pots or just a dozen. It's your call.

Newspaper pot making is a very easy process. The bigger the mold the bigger the pot. Choose any cylinder type object. Soup cans work great for starter plants. Lay out a sheet of newspaper on a flat surface. Line the can at one edge and roll the paper over it until the can is covered. Two or three rolls will enforce the pots strength. Cut off excessive amount of paper at the end. Leave enough paper to turn under. Pull the can or mold from the newspaper pot and your ready to plant.

Repeat the process creating as many newspaper pots as needed. This project is also fun to share with kids. You can make newspaper pots any time of year. Make newspaper pots during winter months for spring planting. Most of all it's a great recycle project. The reuse of newspapers is environmentally friendly.

Line your newspaper pots up in a shallow tray or cardboard box. Fill each one with potting soil and water lightly. A turkey baster filled with water is a great tool for this. Releasing just enough water for each newspaper pot to be dampened without saturating the newspaper pot. You will have much more control over the watering with a turkey baster.

Next add seeds to the newspaper pots. You can use a pencil to make a hole indention in the potting soil. Drop a seed into each hole. Follow seed planting directions on the seed packet. You can label each newspaper pot with a sticky label or small piece of masking tape. Write the plants name on each newspaper pot. When planting full trays of one variety you will need to label the tray only. You may also want to add the date you planted the seeds to keep track of germination times for future reference.

Wait...water and wait.

As the seedlings grow and become stronger, you will be ready to plant the newspaper pots outside. Pick your site, dig a hole and insert the whole newspaper pot into the soil. No need to remove the plant from the pot, no waste. The newspaper pot will disintegrate with time as your plant grows.

Newspaper pots are economical and earth friendly. Make some newspaper pots today. Share them with gardening friends.