recycled milk cans for organic herb garden

Rather than throwing away all the milk cans that you purchase to the weekly waste and filling up the landfills, they can be used as planters for growing a herb garden in you patio. 

These recycled cans are especially great for growing cilantro and mint plants. Also it is a solution for the problem of storage of the mint and cilantro bunch we buy during weekly shopping that tend to go bad by end of week. By having your own live plants you can pluck cilantro on an as needed basis and use it for cooking. 

The procedure is quiet simple. Take an empty milk can, wash it well and the cut it as given in the figure. The handle provides a good structure to hold the planter as well as in hanging them in your patio. 

So in my garden i recently planted three cilantro plants and one mint plant in three of these recycled milk can containers. They are hanging on one corner of the patio facing sun. After you cut the can fill the can to almost the top brim by organic potting soil with some composite mix. I have used different organic potting soils from multiple different companies. All of them work just fine. Then take the cilantro plants and mint plants you wish to plant and carefully plant them in the soil. The cans should be kept in places with adequate sun light. In our garden we hung them up on a corner in cluster of three pots. I have enough room below so that i can hang more cans in future. When you hang the cans make sure you run the cord used for hanging, through the handles. This sort of hanging helps to get a sturdy hold on the cans. We have also tied it to the pole in our patio.
Also make a few little holes in the bottom of the containers for drainage and water the plants on a daily basis and watch it growing. If you do this next time when you need some cilantro or mint, no need to drive to the market; just walk to your patio and pluck some fresh leaves for cooking right out of your herb garden. Besides getting super fresh organic herbs, its a lot of enjoyment watching them grow. We have also read that cilantro replants itself and thus comes up year after year by itself or you can make multiple plants from the one plant you have planted. This we will monitor for this year and will write another blog on the replanting of these plants. All these recycling really permits reducing harmful pile up of plastic in ocean and dumping grounds polluting our mother earth. Wish you all the best for your gardening adventure. Feel free to share your
opinion below as comments.











You can color your cans and they make your garden more lively and nobody will guess it all started with a milk can! I used spray paints here. You can add your own ideas and share them.

Make your own self watering planter for 1/3rd the cost of citypickers planters

Organic vegetable gardening in your patio can be done with much less money if you are determined to find ways to do it. So having self watering planters is good since even if you miss watering your plants for a day or so, the plants still survive and doesn't wilt off. However most of the self watering planters are more than 30$. So i bought a few of them to start off my farming and now i realized that i can possibly make something very similar with 1/3rd the cost of a commercially available planter. So this blog is about that attempt and sharing my experience with those of you out there who are also looking for cheaper alternatives to effective vegetable farming in your back yard or patio.
So the things you need are one good laundry bin or closet organization bin with its lid, a few rocks, a long aluminum beverage can and the soil in which you plan to plant your plants. The laundry bin can be brought from walmart for 8$. First cut the edges of the lid off so that you can lover the lid to the bottom of the bin. Then make a number of holes on the lid. Using a heated kitchen knife will make it easy. Then use a can opener and take off the top and bottom portion of the beverage can so that it appears more like a pipe. If you have a PVC pipe piece lying around in your home, you can even make use of it instead of an aluminium can. Then spread the rocks in the bottom of the laundry basket, keep the beverage can tube in a corner of the basket and then lower the lid on top of the rocks. Once the lid is all the way down spread soil specially along the outside as well as along the corners. Then water it down and spread soil evenly on top the lid all the way to the top of the basket. Mixing some compost with the soil will help in plant growth. Once you fill up the soil you can pour water from top as well as through the tube. Also make two holes on the sides of the container at about 1 inch height from bottom for overflow in case you pore too much water. So the water will stay in the region between the rocks and the porous lid acting as a reservoir. Also the roots of the plants can grow through the pores to reach water. This way even if you forget to pour water for a day plants can get the essential water from the reservoir below. The photo given here also explains the basic idea.
I will share a picture of the planter after i planted some vegetable plants soon as well as post the updates on its growth also here in the coming weeks. Wish you a happy farming.
 

Organic strawberry planting

Go and buy a hanging strawberry plant and take care of it at home, i am sure in a period of few months you will more than compensate for the money you put in since you will constantly get a good number of tasty organic strawberries straight from your patio. Wish you a happy gardening. , following which we noticed so many new flowers and strawberries coming up in our plant. We harvested our first ripen strawberries two weeks ago. We got 3 really tasty strawberries in our first harvest. Then that number went up to 4 new strawberries this last week. This week also it looks like about 4-5 strawberries are on its way to be suitable for plucking. Apart from really getting strawberries off of your plant that you can eat, its a pleasure to take care of the plant and see it growing. The beauty of these red strawberries growing on the plants itself is such a relaxing site to our eyes. So our suggestion to all those who are interested in gardening: Go and buy a hanging strawberry plant and take care of it at home, i am sure in a period of few months you will more than compensate for the money you put in since you will constantly get a good number of tasty organic strawberries straight from your patio. Wish you a happy gardening.