Wednesday, March 11, 2009

Plastic Containers

We were watching TV and they did a documentary about how there is this huge plastic dump in the pacific ocean (http://www.globaltv.com/globaltv/national/story.html?id=1216150) and it made our stomach turn. What is this world coming to?

We thought of some 2nd uses for plastic that we throw away- yogurt containers, plastic pint containers, apple sauce containers.

As previously mentioned, we are starting a vegetable garden this year and we've decided to start some seedlings (usually 6-8 weeks before the last spring frost). So I rummaged around the house to find these containers, cut them down so that they were only around 2 inches tall and poked holes in the bottom for drainage.

Better yet, I made a little greenhouse with an aluminum Costco Pizza Pan and plastic lid (yes, we save those too...just in case we need it). So the greenhouse "houses" my seeds that are waiting to sprout. Which will take anywhere from 3 days to 3 weeks depending on the type of vegetable.

Now, the rest is all theoretical as I haven't transplanted seedlings before. Once the little seeds sprout and the first leaves form, I take a knife and lift the root out while holding onto the leaves and transplant each seedling into its own container (surprise, surprise- again, I've saved these from other plants that I've bought and I just fill it with a seed starter soil).

How can you tell I'm excited?? I'm glad that I'm getting some use out of a whole cupboard full of these seemingly useless plastic containers.

I will post some more updates of our gardening ventures as it progresses.

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