Recycled Newspaper Pots Tutorial

Here is a free, quick and easy project to use up old newspapers and recycle them into pots that can be used to germinate seeds, strike cuttings, or to pot up seedlings. They'll reduce your garden start up costs and the best part is that they can be planted straight into the garden, meaning no root disturbance for the plant. The plants roots will grow through the paper and they will eventually rot away or be eaten by worms. If you use a thicker paper, just tear away and compost the paper before planting.

There are special kits being marketed to make pots like these, but they are absolutely unnecessary. Just use materials you already have on hand. Generally newspapers these days are printed with soy-based inks so using them for vege and herb seedlings is fine, but it's better to use the black and white sections just to be sure.

What you'll need: newspaper, a glass or jar, scissors or ruler to tear paper, compost or seed raising mix.

How to do it:
Fold or tear paper into an oblong and wrap around bottle.

Leave a few cms of paper overhanging the end of the bottle.

Fold in the edges underneath the bottle.

Fold over the top edge to secure the paper in place.

Fill with compost, and you're ready to go! It's best to keep them in a container to retain moisture and to stabilise the pots.

Variations: Use old phone books, junk mail, flyers or any paper that is unbleached and non-glossy. If you are uncertain of the inks used, or if it has been chemically bleached, use the paper pots to grow non-edibles to be planted in an ornamental garden. Use glasses, tubes, pipes, cans, jars etc to roll the paper around. Different sized pots are useful for different applications.

Making Compost

What gardener doesn't understand the feeling of satisfaction when topping up the garden beds, or planting new seeds into moist, dark compost. What used to be household or garden waste ordinarily destined for landfill, is now the life force of an organic garden. What was once alive, is now enabling life to continue on.

Compost doesn't take up much space, and can look tidy even in a small backyard. There are several methods for making compost including commercially made tumbling compost bins, stand alone bins, open compost heaps directly on the ground or even in the form of a worm farm. Many councils will sell compost bins and worm farms at reduced rates to encourage home recycling, so it is worthwhile checking with them before purchasing a bin.

This is a 200L compost bin made by Tumbleweed. It's neat and tidy, compact, and made in Australia from 100% recycled plastic.

If your space is too tiny to house any of these methods, it's worth checking with your local council or tip to see if they provide a green waste composting service. Many will take in green waste free of charge, then for a small fee will let you take away as much as you like to use in your garden or pot plants.

If you are able to make your own compost, you have the advantage of knowing everything that went into it. Ideal ingredients include kitchen scraps, paper, cardboard, grass clippings, prunings, shredded garden waste, animal manures, tea bags, coffee grounds, wood ash, even hair and dust from the vacuum cleaner. Basically if it used to be living, it will make great compost. Ingredients to avoid are meats, cooked foods, glossy paper, dog/cat poo, and any plant material that was diseased or weeds likely to grow and spread again eg couch grass.

All you need to do is create layers in the heap, alternating dry/brown materials (carbon) with green/wet (nitrogen), make sure it can be aerated by tumbling or turning with a fork, remains moist but not wet, and allow it some time to work its magic.

Wannabeahippy has been amazingly slack in setting up the compost, but is finally in the process of setting it up as we speak! Photos and step by step tutorial coming very soon!

Making a Worm Farm

A little while ago we decided that a worm farm would be a good addition to our garden. We looked at the Can O Worms, the Reln Worm Factory and countless plans for farms made from polystyrene boxes, bath tubs etc etc. So we made our own take on all the plans and built our first worm farm today.

We started with 3 black plastic tubs, a plastic tap and some fly screen. DH made a frame out of scrap pieces of stainless RHS so the tubs can sit up off the ground and the liquid can drain into another container. Total cost to us was around $30 plus worms.



Firstly we had to drill holes in 2 of the tubs. This is for drainage of the 'worm wee' and so the worms can move freely between the levels. The base tub is solid and has the tap installed in the bottom. Because these tubs stack on top of each other fairly closely, DH made up some little brackets so they would sit up higher (about 150mm).



In the base tub we put in the tap so we can empty out the liquid that drains down through the farm.



The middle tub has fly screen taped down over the holes so the worms don't fall down into the liquid. The worms will move between the middle and top levels searching for food. This is the middle tub.



The top tub just has the holes in the bottom, so they can move up and down between the top and middle tubs.



With all of that done, we can start adding the bedding for the worms. We used 2 bricks of coco peat which expand to around 9litres when rehydrated and some damp potting mix. The middle tub was filled up to the bracket where the bottom of the top tray sits. This will be the worms main bedding layer. The top tub has a small amount of coco peat and potting mix and about 6 layers of wet newspaper on top. The worm food will be put under the newspaper, which keeps flies and light out, and the moisture in.

So here is the finished product!! The fancy frame that DH made, the solid tub with tap in the bottom, the middle bedding layer filled with coco peat, potting mix and worms, and the top feeding layer with a small amount of coco peat and potting mix, and damp newspaper on top.