by Julie Finn
Who needs big bucks to build a greenhouse when you can create an upcycled structure from salvaged plastic bottles?
Know a big group of kids in search of a big service project?
Check out the plastic bottle greenhouse that kids in Scotland built out of approximately 1,500 2-liter bottles, and read their detailed pdf instructions for how to build a greenhouse from plastic bottles here.
If you’d prefer to use 1.5-liter water bottles to build your greenhouse, however, use Ana White’s plastic bottle greenhouse plans (pictured above).
Because you need SO MANY plastic bottles to build a greenhouse, this project would make an excellent one for a school or club. I could see this being done in 4-H or Girl Scouts, at the Boys and Girls Club or in a food pantry’s youth or garden extension programs, at Maker Faire or Strange Folk Festival or Lollapalooza.
Want to start just a *little* smaller than building a full-on greenhouse? Look through these other recycled plastic gardening projects, and see if something strikes your fancy
1. 2-liter plastic bottle hanging planter: Don’t just use plastic bottles only for seed starting; you can keep your plants permanently in this hanging planter.
2. CD case greenhouse: It turns out that you can cobble together quite a serviceable little greenhouse using only plastic CD cases.
3. in-ground plastic bottle plant cover: Caught out by an unexpected freeze warning, just after you’ve got all of your delicate plant starts in the ground? You can use plastic bottles as individual greenhouses right in the garden.
4. miniature plastic bottle greenhouse: You need just one plastic bottle to keep your favorite plant happy.
5. plastic bottle seed starters: This little greenhouse provides the perfect warm and moist environment for starting seeds from scratch.
6. plastic salad container greenhouse: A plastic salad container is the perfect size and shape to grow a crop of microgreens.
Do you know any local group that’s completed a large-scale recycling project like this? I’d love to hear about it in the Comments below!
[plastic bottle greenhouse image via Ana White]
a version of this article originally ran at Crafting a Green World
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