Plastic juice bottles turned into self-watering plant holders

In the summer we go through bottles and bottles or orange and guava juice and I decided to save all the plastic bottles to make self-watering plant holders

 

ABOVE: Planted up about a month ago, this vivid red Verbena has certainly filled out the pot.

ABOVE and BELOW: For this project I planted some white and blue alyssum in different sized plastic juice bottles.

BELOW: You can also use this idea for cacti and succulents, but leave out the water and self-watering strip shown lower down.

YOU WILL NEED:

Plastic juice bottles -  I like Oros bottles because they have such a nice shape

Scissors

Cotton wool balls or pads

Lamp wicks

Deco stones

Plants of your choice

We bought all our supplies for this project at Builders. They have a nice selection of cacti and succulents in the garden section.

 

 

HERE'S HOW:

1. Cut the bottle in half as shown below.

2. Use a pair of scissors to trim the top of the bottle to make the decorative 'trim' that will surround the plants.

 

BELOW: I didn't cut the trim the same for all the bottles - some I just left with a solid border around the top.

3. For the self-watering process you need some lamp wicks. These are placed with about 3 centimetres showing out of the top secti8on and are secured by padding cotton balls or pads in around the neck.

4. Make sure that the lamp wick is in the centre of the top and fill about a quarter of the way up with decorative stones. These stones also help with drainage to ensure that the plant roots do not become water-logged.

5. Now you can plant up with colourful annuals, foliage plants, or even succulents or cacti.

Fill the base with water to about half way. The lamp wick absorbs water and carries this up into the soil to keep the plants nicely watered for quite some time. All you need to do is check occasionally and top up the container.

 

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