New Tomato Plants In Old Milk Jugs: Planting Tomatoes Upside Down
Posted by Jonathan
This video will show you how to plant tomato and pepper plants in milk jugs. The biggest advantages? Growing plants in a small space from reusable milk jugs (instead of throwing them into the trash).
If you live in an apartment, you can still grow vegetables. Milk jugs, potting soil, and tomatoes combine to make simple summer plants, and you can use something you're probably throwing away right now: plastic containers.
The inspiration for this: Carrie and I saw a TV commercial where they were selling some plastic thing you could buy for $20 to grow your own tomatoes. What's the point of that? People have plastic containers like milk jugs that they throw out every day. We actually got the milk jugs for our tomato plants from the coffee shop where Carrie works sometimes. Carrie told me that the coffee shop throws out at least 15 of these milk jugs EVERY day. That's unbelievable. (Think about the hundreds of thousands of milk jugs thrown out every day my the thousands of coffee shops across America alone). So we turned them into tomato planters. If you live in an apartment or have limited space, this could be a perfect way for you to grow tomatoes as well.
This is also an awesome project to do with kids if you want to teach them to re-use old stuff and let it become something new and useful. (A valuable life skill.)
Two added benefits:
- If you have back problems, you can still garden because you don't need to bend to pick your tomatoes
- Little to no weeding necessary. If you don't like pulling weeds, this could be the vegetable garden for you.
Grow your own tomatoes and peppers from milk jugs.
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UPDATE 25. June, 2009: Ian sent in pictures of the milk jug tomato planters his daughter made after watching the video.
Thanks for sending this Ian!
If you want to send us YOUR pictures, we'll post them here as well.
Send us your pictures to green [at] greenjoyment.com
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Comments
Here's an alternative so you don't have to use plastic which is nasty and also heats the roots too much in a very warm climate.
Go to Walmart or better yet, Big Lots (cheaper for these, exactly the same as Walmart, all from China, of course) and buy some of those hanging, "moss" lined baskets. I use the 12-14" size for tomatoes, peppers, and I"m trying squash, too.
So far, here in southern NM, these retain moisture very well and look great...and NO PLASTIC!!
This is a great idea to avoid the plastic and I agree wholeheartedly.
At the same time, the coffee shop where Carrie works throws out at least 15 of these plastic milk jugs EVERY day, and they go straight to a landfill. This at least lets them be re-used and turned into something new and useful, which was kind of the point... to not buy something new, but to use something that already was being thrown away for a new purpose.
Thanks for watching the video and for your suggestions!
Jonathan
www.GreenJoyment.com
P.S. Do you have a video of pictures of your plants?
This sounds like a great idea. We planted our vegs this year in earth boxes......got the plans for them online...... free...check it out...... "Earth Box" great for small areas and patios ect ect
heh you guysod have some great recycle methods i like them so keep on recycle those empty containers and keep the enviornment clean
I myself was also attracted to the milk jug idea because of the reuseability factor and because of the no cost factor. As a stay at home mom I am always looking for ways to cut cost, plus it was a fun project with my 6 year old! In addition, I am going to use some scrap fabric from my mom to cover the not so pretty milk jug!
Hi,
You guys are amazing and your ideas most innovative. Thanks for sharing.
Egidio
Duke and Egidio
Thank-you very much for your compliments! Glad you got a lot out of this!
Denise
Using leftover scrap fabric is a great idea! We'd love to see pictures of your planters if you'll send them back to us or post them in the forum at GreenJoyment.com/forum
Instead of looking for wire and/or string to hang up the planters, use the old wire hangers everyone has lying around the house! No one wants them and they might as well be useful instead of thrown out.
Barb,
That is a GREAT suggestion! Thanks for adding it!
Warmest,
Jonathan
http://www.greenjoyment.com/new_tomato_plants_in_old_milk_jugs_planting_tomatoes_upside.html