Inspired with other gardening bloggers who use egg shells, toilet roll inners, newspapers and plastic bottles to start seeds, I have been using recycled drinking bottles* to grow my 2 other snake bean seedlings and that’s about how far the recycling effort went in my balcony. (oh, and I use water recycled from washing rice, which my mom helps to save in a bottle, to water my plants)

Somehow, I kept thinking that items could be recycled into small pots to start seeds but I would still need to buy much bigger pots from the nursery. And was just about planning to do so as this 2 snake bean seedlings have gotten too big for their current plastic bottles.

 

Other items that I am leaving out to dry for later use were ice-cream cups, tetra packs from packet drinks and containers from my Lunar New Year Yu-Sheng pack.

But that thought changed when I saw Gardening With Wilson’s blog post about this article that he wrote on the Recycling Garden found inside HortPark, where even recycled cisterns and suitcases are used to grow plants!

I made a decision there and then after reading the article. 

I will not buy pots for use in my balcony. I will use whatever recycled materials that I can get my hands on.  

Looking back, I am proud to say that in my balcony, the 2 Ikea shoe racks were given by an old neighbour before he moved and felt that they were too good to throw away. 3 large discarded ceramic pots were salvaged by  my mom and to think that I chided her then for bringing junk back. She thought that they were too good to throw away too. 

The problem with being a increasingly affluent society than our parents’ generation is that we tend to buy whatever we want simply because we can afford it and throw out whatever that we regard as old. But that is not the point. 

Wilson’s article opened my eyes to what is possible. Do not restrict yourself to the norm. With an opened mind, there were alot of “potentials” as I looked around my home. And top on my list is this…

The detergent should be used up soon and then the 5 litre bottle is mine! Muahahaha… I just need to saw the top off and make holes at the bottom for drainage. I love the handle part too! My homeless snake beans seedlings will just have to wait till then.

And I am keeping my eyes opened for a recycled container suitable for use as a compost bin. Been surfing on composting and I definitely want to recycle our kitchen scraps.

What other recycled materials do you use for your garden? Pray tell. It’s exciting to hear about the endless possibilities.

Now I regret throwing away the old rice cooker pot when we moved. Ouch.

* Recycling is good but it’ll be even greater if we can avoid buying bottled water altogether. Avoid buying products with excessive packaging as well.