We're always looking for ways to recycle plastic pots, right? We go shopping for perennials at the nursery, install them in a perennial bed, stick the plant markers that came with them in the ground, stand back and admire our work. All is right with the world, at that moment. Well, not quite: As we look at the mountain of plastic pots accumulating next to the garden shed, we wonder: "Isn't there some practical use to which I can put those containers? If only I could recycle plastic pots into something that I use in the garden all the time."
Actually, those plastic pots do have a practical use. The plant markers that come with perennials are unsatisfactory in so many ways, including the fact that they:
- blow around easily
- can't be read easily from a distance (since the writing is too small)
Sure, you could buy some of the fancier plant markers. But why not kill two birds with one stone? Recycle plastic pots into free plant markers! This tutorial shows you how....
I've encountered other ideas for recycling junk into free plant markers (recycled window blinds are one example). But the beauty of this idea is that the junk to be recycled -- the plastic pot -- is right there at your feet, as soon as you've knocked your plant out of its container for installation in your garden. No need to go looking around in the garage for junk that you've been storing away (and that's been taking up space), hoping that, someday, you'd figure out a way to recycle it.
I've called these plant markers "free," but you will incur some expense up front if you have to go out and buy the other supplies pictured in the photo above: a wood burning tool, tube of grout (or "grout repair") and garden trowel. But the trowel you probably have on hand, anyway, if you're a gardener. And if you enjoy crafts, you really should own a wood burning tool, with which you can make designs on hard-shell gourds, etc.
On Page 2 I'll explain how to use the wood burning tool on your recycled plastic pot to create a plant marker....
