It’s officially garden season! We’ve been prepping our garden for the last few weeks, and I use recycled materials to make our seed starters. But once they seeds start to hit the top of the cartons I have to move them to their new home, whether that is our big garden or a planter.
We’ve discovered that our new puppy is a digger and keeping him out of our plants has been a challenge. But my little seeds need a little more time in a greenhouse environment, so I’m using recycled bottles to keep them safe and grow a little bigger.
I moved the seeds to a planter that I can pick up and move around about from the little digger. I placed three plants in the planter so that they had plenty of room to grow. Here I have two Cherokee Purples (<get free seeds) and a Brussel Sprout. Then I cut the bottom off some clear plastic bottles and placed them over the plant and pushed it down into the dirt to make sure it was secure. 
Once the plants get bigger I’ll remove the little greenhouse to allow them to reach their full potential. The brussel sprout will be able to stay in this pot because they don’t get really tall but the heirloom tomato plants will need to be transferred into the big garden and it will need a tomato cage for support.
You can find plastic containers all over your house. One of the #1 places we forget to recycle these items is in the bathroom. That why Johnson & Johnson Consumer Inc. designed the Care To Recycle® program started. It is a gentle reminder to recycle your personal care items in the bathroom. Everything from shampoo and mouthwash bottles to soap and bandage boxes can be recycled. To better understand which bathroom products can and cannot be recycled, visit the Care To Recycle® website. One of the easiest ways to do this is to put a small recycling bin alongside your regular trash can. We’ve implemented this in my house, and I can tell that not only do my kids remember to put recyclables in the bin, but my husband is too. We are lucky that our recycling drop off is streamlined, so we don’t have to sort anything. It can all go in one big bin.
I generally rummage through the bin for anything I can use to recycling projects around the house like this one. Clear bottles, like a Listerine bottle, can be used for the mini greenhouses, while the colored bottles can be transformed into travel safes or cool cell phone charging stations.
Together, we can help create a healthy planet for our kids today, and for future generations.
I was selected for this opportunity as a member of Clever Girls and the content and opinions expressed here are all my own.
