Lockdown Gardening - Making Plantpots Out of Plastic Bottles

Our seedlings did really well (better than expected!) in our tiny dipping sauce containers, see earlier post Lockdown Gardening - Using Dipping Sauce Containers to Plant Seeds. Now they need a bigger pot. I haven't been out to buy any new containers for them yet. I'm still only going out if I really have to and I'm also trying to spend as little money as possible! 

If I venture as far as the recently reopened garden centre I know I will get carried away a spend a fortune. As a family we, like many others, are unsure as to what our income will be in the next few months. We've been meal planning and sticking to a budget since the lockdown began so I'm trying to continue in the spirit of keeping spending to a minimum and making the most of what we've got and recycling as much as possible. 

The sauce seed pots didn't cost a penny so I'm trying to carry that on to the next stage of my little plants' development. After looking at various options I decided on cutting up a plastic drinks bottle and using the bottom. 

It was easy to cut to the right size and add good sized holes to the bottom for drainage. The size should keep these plants happy for a little while during their next stage of development. 

I simply tapped the bottom of the sauce container to remove the seedling and soil.

And then transferred it, soil and all, to its new, soil filled container.

A little extra water and it's ready to keep on growing.

A couple of weeks on the windowsill and spells outside on very warm sunny days and it's thriving.

Paper Butterfly Toilet Roll Craft

My 4 year old daughter has been learning about bugs in her latest learning topic from school and she asked if we could make on theme. After looking through our arts and crafts box and recycling tub we decided on making a butterfly.

I cut out two wings out of black paper.

She then used different items to draw around on coloured paper.

I also showed her how to fold paper into four so she could cut out two identical shapes, she tried hearts and diamonds.

She got to practice using scissors as well as learning about shapes and symmetry.

Once she was happy she glued the shapes to the black wings and then we attached them to a toilet roll tube with sellotape.

Finally, she drew on a little face to complete her butterfly.

It was a super simple activity that she really enjoyed and time well spent on a rainy day.