hanging milk bottle planters

You are very inventive. I think it's clever

The good thing is that the roots of each plant to not get tangled up with other plant roots. Also the milk bottle
can be removed by cutting it, and cutting again to put
the plant out in the garden, without disturbing the roots.

Very inventive

Clever Fran! :)

Fran I love they way you put down all your thought processes. My head was in a whirl by the end. You think of the most amazing things. How did you manage to make drainage holes? Have you tried heating an old fashioned metal meat skewer and melting a hole? Works like a dream.

I really like the shopping cart you have converted to a planter. It seems that it would also do double duty as a garden cart to move plants, bagged soil or anything else you might need to move around.

Thanks Bathgate and Diane and Paul and Karen.

@ Stera: I have an awl (I think it’s called; small metal rod with point and wooden handle, for making pilot holes for screws); I put just the tip through, to make the smallest hole possible.
I have some barbecue skewers; I used to heat one of them on the gas ring to make holes in 5-litre water bottles, which are quite a bit tougher to get through – don’t like leaning too heavily on any point or edge in case it slips, as in fact it did a few times.

@ Loosestrife: that came with me from my old flat. I had several (not all at once) that I rescued from being dumped in the street – two were deep ones that were really too deep for planting, and one was a shallow one like this, but the wheels were magnetic to stop it being taken out of the shop over the magnetic mat (ha, that worked!) so I had to lift the front to get the wheels off the ground to move it. This one is roll-free and very handy. I’m thinking of using it as a mobile nursery, once I can get the space for it – doubt it’d roll so easily over grass

Depending on the size of the S hook you should be able to turn part of the hook to one side using two pairs of pliers (one to hold and one to turn) if you have a bench vice even better. Or in your best recyling mode, make your own hooks from wire coat hangers.

I hadn't thought of that, Urbanite - I'm not sure I've got the tools or the strength to bend the hooks, and anyway that might weaken them. I did think of putting a loop of string through the handle and hanging the hook on that, which should have the same effect - the loop would go side-to-side. Hadn't thought about wire coat hangers either - well, not in a load-bearing sense! I usually over-build, to make sure it's going to be strong enough to take the strain

Very clever, Fran! A couple of years ago I used 1lt milk bottles down on the allotment. I'd noticed some people using them to frighten birds - tied to a piece of sting strung across their plot - they move with the slightest puff of wind but look unsightly. It occurred to me that I could use them as plant "labels". I turned back the the paper on itself so the unprinted side was now facing outwards. I then stuck it down with some tape after writing the plant name & planting date on it. (Doesn't work on the ones with plastic sleeves). I then put them upside down on a cane through the opening. I later had to modify that a little by making a hole in the centre of the lids & pushing the cane through there. Works a whole lot better! You can't really use them for a 2nd season, as I found out when trying! (They disintegrate!) Didn't use the system for more than 2 years as we stopped using the litre bottles of milk.

I used 2-pint bottles, buried beside plants, with holes in the bottoms, that I'd fill with water and put the lid back on, so that the water would leak out at root level without evaporating from the top. At least, that was the idea, but I think I made the holes too big, so it all sort of gushed out in one go rather than seeping. but at least the roots got water.

maybe they could be cut into s trips and hung as bird deterrents; not sure if whole bottles would be necessary, unless the cap was left off so that the wind whistled through them!

I've tried using them as plant labels - mine have plastic wrap "labels" so they're not much use (not that I'd thought of trying them anyway) - but I have to use bullet marker pens to get the writing big enough so eventually it gets rained off. I had thought of writing halfway down, folding the tab over and planting both ends to keep the writing dry, or drier, at least, but not got round to trying that yet.

I've been saving the plastic lids to hang as mobiles (maybe they'd do bird-scaring on their own?) they also make good emergency washers for putting up shelves etc to stop the screw coming out