Lots of Pots

If you know me at all well, you will understand that the following pictures represent deep excitement and fulfillment to me!

Lovely aren't they?
What's that?
Just a bunch of folded newspaper?
Well of course its a bunch of folded newspaper....
but I plan to use them instead of peat pots for planting seeds and cuttings!
Free, eco-friendly, don't need washing and sterilizing...
How cool is that?


I saw a natty little wooden - er - thing - to help you make these in a National Trust shop once.  It cost a lot of money, so I had a little fiddle about today, and this is how I did it:

 

 Step one: cut some roughly 10" square bits of scrap paper. Newspaper is ideal because it is nice and thin, but does not tear up too easily.
Place the sheets on top of one another, but with their corners not lined up - as if you were making a star.

 Step two: find a good sturdy plastic cup or plant pot.
Sit it in the centre of the paper (when in Britain, spell center like a Brit. Especially if you are a Brit.)

 Step three: fold up either side of the paper around the cup. Crease the folds and squash them flat against the cup.

 Step four: fold the excess newspaper into pleats until they are tucked snugly against the cup.  Press the creases firmly all the way up to the tips of the paper corners.

 Step five: carefully shake the cup out of the paper, holding the creases in place with one hand.  Now fit the base of the paper into the cup. This should hold your creases in place for step six.

 Step six: Fold the pointy corners down into the inside of the paper pot. Take a little bit of the pleated part of the pot too as you fold. This will make the pot more rigid and stronger.

 Here is mine all folded down, ready to take out of the cup....

 Step seven: and just because I am pedantic, I pushed the paper pot back onto the outside of the cup to make the creases firmer on the inside.

Here is the finished product, all ready to fill with compost and plant seeds.

I used the "i" newspaper - not too bad on the black finger front!

It has been such a long, long, dark and dismal winter that the current rush of sunshine, wind and the odd shower has meant that I can't wait to get planting!  I hope there will soon be more pics of things growing.