Alternative

DIY site with paper pots. Just in case. Instructables.com is a decent site to browse ranging from the easy to the not so DIY.

http://www.instructables.com/id/Making-paper-plant-pots/

Updates

Everything is growing. I'm waiting on a set of window boxes I ordered. They'll be the main "garden area" after I build a holder/table thing for them. The potato might have some mold in the dirt, and some of the planters also have some fungi growing on them.

I think the planters'  mold is because of the flour-paste I used to glue them together, because the growth is mostly on the fold where the two ends of the 'skinny rectangle' meat. So perhaps using a non-glutenous binding agent (i.e. regular white glue) would be better. Or just use the smash method they suggest for non square planters. Also, if you use a newspaper starter planter, I suggest filling them up to the rim with dirt. Doing so will reduce the amount of water loss, since a rim will wick moisture up and lead to quicker evaporation.



The seedlings are doing well though. I have nine plants with maybe one more about to poke out.











They're fairly tall (about 4 inches) and some have started to put out their first real leaves. The one in the foreground is the first sprout, planted in the demo planter. It's the biggest. I water them about twice a day and spritz them with a spray bottle about three times a day.







Potato plant. Can you tell which way the sun comes in? I'll probably add 4 inches of soil in the next day or two in order to encourage tuber growth. I also threw in the left-over planters in there, as you can see. I'm testing to see how long they take to decompose.







Future tomato, right here. I bought a Brandy-wine tomato the other day at the farmers market. Soooo good! Grow tomato, grow!

Thai Basil blossom. Not good for growing leaves, but they're really pretty.

And the pepper plant. Nothing really exciting going on. It's putting out a few more leaves and got some heat damage a few weeks ago. Looks alright I guess.

Sprouting Already

This morning when I watered my pots, everything was normal. Dirt was in the seedling pods and the big plants were fine.

This afternoon (4:02pm) I went out for the afternoon watering and look what I found!!!!

Yay! Sprouting already. This is even the demo pot! Great Success. Right now it's the only germination that's appeared. I think another pot has a little green just below the surface, but no popping just yet.

I'm so happy.

It's Growing!

My Own Newspaper Planter

 
Perhaps it would have been a "good idea" to look up exactly how most people make starter planters out of newspaper. Instead I jumped it without much of a plan and tried out my own techniques. Now, I do not claim to be master origami-ist, paper folder, or package wrapper. The presents I give come wrapped in wrinkled, crooked, and homely paper no matter how hard I try to be neat. Luckily, these planters aren't meant to be pretty. The newspaper degrades just slowly enough to let some seedling pop-out and ready themselves for transplant. The material works much like a peat-pot but at a cheaper and perhaps a more eco-friendly cost.

The original Newspaper Planters that I saw were made with a round object-tool-thing. I only glanced at the picture and did no reading on how it worked. I tried first with drinking cup. However, newspaper apparently doesn't wrap well around a tapered object. The mashing to make a bottom didn't work well for me either; I was left with a big hole in my cup.I decided folding it into a square would be just as easy. I tried "wrapping" a miniature Chinese food box thing. Once again this object tapers. Didn't work out too well. Then I thought, oh why not just fold it? Who needs and object. Surprisingly, after a few prototypes, a functional folded newspaper planter emerged.

This is a quick photo-tutorial to let you my newspaper planter. So far they've held up pretty well. The other way to do it may be easier. Mine is a ten-step program.

Start with one sheet of newspaper. I cut half of a sheet to get this one (about 15x16). I don't think the size really matters. Maybe if you use a larger one you could fold it more to make stronger walls, but then again that might make it harder to fold.

1. Anyway, fold it in half until you have a skinny rectangle. I folded this one in half once, where the Auburn Orange line is.

2. Fold your skinny rectangle into five parts. These will be the four walls and a flap. Basically fold not quite in half and fold in half again. Where I folded is marked here in Auburn Orange squiggles.

3. Unfold the paper until you have your skinny rectangle back. 

4. Cut about 1/3 the way down the creases, shown here as Auburn Blue boxes. Really, you can cut as much as you want too, as long as it's more than half the length of the "wall sections." The flaps that you are creating in this step will fold down to make the bottom, so make sure they will reach each other. Also: cut the edge-to-edge side of the skinny rectangle, not the middle fold side.  This will make your pot stronger, and prevent dirt from falling into the newspaper.







5. Shape your paper into a prism, bending it at the creases, and wrapping the flap section around the corner of the first.




 


6. To make the flap stick to the first section, I used flour-water paste. It was about the consistency of toothpaste. Flour-water won't harm the plants, and it's really easy to make. I just used my fingers to spread it on. I guess you could get fancy and use a brush.

At this point, your skinny rectangle should be a rectangular prism with two open ends. It should retain it's shape without you holding it. 

7. Fold down the flaps you cut to make the bottom. Start with the section where the two ends of the skinny rectangle meet to make sure that flap holds strong. Between each flap (and maybe between the layers of newspaper) spread some flour-water.










 



8. Once all four sides are down. Cover the entire bottom with a more watered flourwater paste. About the consistency you would use for paper-mache. This will make the bottom stronger.

9. Let dry overnight. You should have a fairly sturdy, somewhat cute, newspaper planter in the morning!

10. Fill with dirt and a few seeds. Water regularly, keeping the soil moist. These pots don't retain water very well. If seeding different plants, be sure to mark your pots. Here it's "LC" for Lemon Cucumber.





If you're confused (which is very likely, especially on step 4), leave a comment or email me or something. Or figure it out yourself.

It's Hot.

My pepper plant looks a bit sad. Nicholas took a look and said it's too hot, and moved it to the shade. Ohnoes. I guess that's what 99* F does to plants.

I've made the paper starter planters and filled them with dirt and seeds. Pictures and explanation coming once I get to a better computer. Woohoo!

Stage One: Excitement and Impulse Planting.

I did all this on July 1.

This is what my balcony looks like. I'll be changing apartments in August, which is why I'm making a mobile garden unit. I'm really bad at estimating but I'd say the balcony is 12x5ft. It gets plenty of sun in the afternoon, but this was cloudy day so you can't really tell. My new balcony should be about the same size and get twice as much sun (more south facing).

The buckets you see in the foreground are from the local garden center, Blooming Colors. They are 7 gallon grower buckets and were free. They're what plants come in when you buy them. Most places will have these cheap plastic planters, leftovers from landscaping jobs. Some places have them for free, some at a very cheap price.

I got five of these buckets. They're a bit big for what I had to grow, so I filled them bottoms with various objects. (Clockwise from top) The first bucket is for the tomatoe plant and filled with empty plastic bottles. The second is for the Thai Basil and has a cut, upside down bucket in it. The third is for the Sweet Pepper and has a plastic deli-tray cover on it. The final bucket  has nothing in the bottom because its for a potato (already in).

I didn't have enough soil (just the regular Miracle Grow) to fill all four. The three starter plants I bought at Lowe's needed to be transferred, and therefore got priority. I planted each in its own bucket, as described above. The Thai Basil and Tomato had blooms on them so I nipped them to promote root and leaf growth for now. I'm not sure if that was the best thing for the Tomato.

As of today, all three look quite healthy, and have grown since this picture. They survived the extended weekend without watering. I set the potato ontop of the soil of the pepper pot, and it has rooted. I also picked up several seed packets over the weekend. Need to get some dirt!

Coming soon: Seeding in Newspaper Planters

Researching for the Future and Inspirations from my Past

I've been doing some research over the past few days. A lot of the gardening websites (and books) say the same thing over and over and over again. Yes, I get it plants need sun, soil, and moisture. A 3rd grader could have told me that.

Well, here are a few good links with helpful information for planning a veggie garden.

Companion Planting List http://www.ghorganics.com/page2.html
It's a really straightforward list of different plants. Each plant has a paragraph or so of what it does to help your garden, what you might plant with it, or what not to plant with it.

Rooth Depth & More http://www.ces.ncsu.edu/depts/hort/hil/hil-33-e.html
All you would want to know about the preferences of plants' roots. Technical but, easily deciphered. An it has a neat little table.

My Inspiration http://www.wired.com/magazine/2010/05/ff_domestic_terraforming/ Might as well admit it, this article inspired me to finally transform my balcony. I wanted to garden after seeing Fritz Haeg's work, but this [rather useless] article reminded me that I could do it even if it was mid-June!

Fritz Haeg http://www.fritzhaeg.com/ His Edible Estates project is so cool. It doesn't seem like a big deal, but I that's what makes it amazing- changing your yard into a productive garden isn't a big deal. His talk here at Auburn was also very informative, so glad I went.