Download Budget Gardening: Small Plant Covers

Budget Gardening:
Small Plant Covers
By Tom Olsen
Foreword
When starting plants from seeds the container needs to be covered until the seeds sprout.
I also need covers for small outdoor plants when it is going to get cold.
As I was preparing my containers and seeds for planting I took a few pictures to share
with others that may benefit from my experiments. This is the first time I have tried these
procedures, so I do not know if they will produce good results or not. It is worth a try.
I save any 3 liter bottles that we get from buying soda and I cut them down for different
purposes. Below are the materials I use to cut the 3 liter bottle:
3 liter plastic soda bottle, utility knife, and scissors for making small plant cover.
If you look at the reflection of light near the left side of the plastic bottle, you will see
that it stops where the curved top of the bottle meets the flatter sides. I cut along this line
of reflection around the bottle. First I make a small slit in the bottle along this line with a
utility knife (a single edge razor blade would work).
Or, if I need to use the bottom of the bottle as a holder, I make the slit along the bulging
seam of plastic where the side meets the bottom, as shown below:
Then I cut around the bottle with the scissors:
This leaves two pieces, a holder and a cover. But, the cover will not fit over the holder
just yet because they are the same size. To remedy this, I cut off about an inch or so of
the holder so it is smaller around:
Then the cover will fit over the holder and keep my small plants protected.
Here are some of the covers I made, some with the top cut off and some with the bottom
cut off. I was thinking that by cutting off the top (when I did not need a holder or when I
was making a holder from a second bottle) then I would have a flat spot on top to place a
weight to keep the protection in place outside in the wind if needed. Or, I could mount
the bottle caps on a small board or framework of boards in order to hold many bottlecovers in place.
Now, I wonder if I could just poke a hole in the top of the cover and put my low pressure
misting irrigation into each bottle so I don’t have to lift the cover to water my outdoor
plants. Maybe next project.