Newspaper Planters ~ How Cool Are These?

Here is the post on how to make newspaper planters that I promised everyone. I heard of these & knew I wanted to try to make them. After a quick search on Google I found several article & a few YouTube videos. I am one that needs to see it being done in order to get it. I didn't make a video but did take pics for you to see the step by step process I used. Ready?

First get one, full page of newspaper. You want to open it as if you were going to read it. Then fold it in half. If you fold it the other direction it doesn't work as well. Trial & error speaking.

Now fold it in half again. Now you've folded it twice.

Now take a glass and place it halfway down the folded paper. A tall 8oz. glass works best.

Roll the glass in the paper. You need to do it tightly but not so tightly that you can't remove the glass once it is all rolled.
You'll get the feel of it after making a planter or two.

Keep rolling it until you have completely rolled the entire paper around the glass.

Once you are finished rolling it should look like this.


Remember how you placed the glass only halfway on the paper? Stuff that paper that is not directly wrapped around the glass into the mouth of your glass. That paper will make the bottom of your planter.

Remove the glass.

This is what it looks like after removing the glass.

To form the bottom of your planter put your glass back in the planter. Use the bottom of your glass for this.

Push the bottom of the glass down. This will squash the paper you crumpled inside and make a firm bottom for your planter.

Take your glass back out again. I usually help make sure the bottom is in place.

A view of the bottom. Now it will hold dirt nicely.

Two finished planters.

A homemade strawberry smoothie to help me work. It isn't a must to make a good newspaper planter but it does help. Lol!

My little audience.

Once I got the hang of it they went pretty fast.

It must have looked fun because Sweet Pea kept asking to try.

Soon we had a 3 flats of planters made.

My outside work station.

Filled with dirt & busy planting!

I recommend putting them in flats or pans. You need something underneath for when you water them. We got free flats at our local Aldi.

Cucumbers, zucchini, Butternut squash & Acorn squash.

One article I read said you can put the planters straight in the ground when you are ready to plant your big garden. Another said the newspaper takes quite awhile to break down enough so the roots can get through. I have decided to take mine out of the planters when I plant. Because of this I went ahead and used masking tape to label most of my plants. Either way it's a great way to reuse your newspaper & keep those plastic planters out of landfills! Oh, and to save some money too! I don't know about you but I love making something new from something old! =0)

Our Indoor Greenhouse

Thanks to a friend of mine we found this neat little greenhouse for only $20. It fits perfectly in our upstairs bathroom in front of the window. This house doesn't have as many sunny spots as our MA house did so the bathroom it is! We started some seeds indoors to get a jump on the garden.

The greenhouse.

Sprouts growing from my newspaper planters.

Squash & pumpkins!

We used flats from Aldi that we brought groceries home in. The planters are made from newspaper. Recycle! Recycle!

Reaching for the sunlight!

A newspaper planter ready for some new seeds!

The inside filled with soil.
I'll post soon on how I made the newspaper planters.

These photos were taken last week. The plants have already grown even taller! We are having such fun watching them grow.

Planting, Playing & Plugging Along

Spring has arrived! It actually has felt more like summer. But rest assured I am NOT complaining! We are enjoying planting seeds, playing & studying outdoors. The sunshine feels wonderful!

Today I planted some of my outdoor planters. Princess helped to weed this big one.

What is that?

Big sister & little sister work side-by-side.

Bugsy drew his wish for his seeds.

My little helper.

My spring surprise flowers, a pot of Sweet Basil & a pot of Parsley.

Sky(Walker) enjoys the sunshine too.

Sweet Pea continues to study hard.

The boys are deep in negotiations.

My pots of Cilantro, Sweet Basil & Chives.

Pretty. I love that it returns every year.

They boys planted sunflower seeds in their pots.

My Parsley has returned!

Bugs was learning spelling & doing handwriting without even realizing it. And by his own choice too!

What a beautiful day to be working & learning outside.

Fish for Fertilizer

It's that time of year again! Garden time! Yahoo! I love it all. The planning, the planting, the maintaining, and especially the harvesting. Well, maybe I don't enjoy the weeding too much. But that's what the kids are for, right? Tee, hee, hee. This being only our 2nd summer in TN I'm still getting used to things. I miss the rich, free soil back home. There we decided how big our garden would be by how much of our yard we wanted to dig up. Here it's all about $$. We have to have raised beds & containers since the soil is like clay. This year we were able to add a second raised bed. Yay! After a trip to Home Depot I got started the next day on my planting.

That same night we bought the plants (Monday) I bought a 2lb. package of frozen fish at Walmart. (This is just one of the fillets.)

I partially thawed it and then cut it into bite-sized chunks.

One fillet I left alone for Sweet Pea's lunch. =0)

Next I went outside to see how my planting from last week was doing.

LOOK! My lettuce & spinach have sprouted!

Dave roped off the new raised bed. I wanted smaller squares so I used a stick to draw lines in the dirt.

I also planted some Petunias in my great, big planter.


Elvis generously added in some worms.

All done!

Now we have something beautiful to look at & smell when we relax on the back patio.

Here's the planting I did on Monday. It took quite awhile b/c for each I first dug a hole. Sometimes I needed to remove some of the clay soil on the bottom. Then I partially filled the hole with Miracle Grow soil. After that I tossed in a handful of the fish pieces. Lastly I put the tomato plant in and covered it up with soil. We now have 18 tomato plants & 4 pepper plants. I'm excited & hoping they all flourish & produce like bunnies! Lol!