Hanging DIY Gardens

These hanging DIY gardens are easy to make and a fun way to recycle/upcycle!

I can’t wait to have a house.  Mostly, for the land that will come with it so I can garden (and finally get a dog).  Growing up, my parents always tried to get me to help them plant flowers and maintain their garden.  I always thought it was boring.  I just didn’t have a green thumb.  Now that I am older, I am starting to understand why they enjoy it so much.  All I want to do is grow my own food and herbs to attempt being more self-sustaining.

The only problem with this is, I live in NDG (Montreal) and all I have is a small balcony.  This is why I did some research to see if it was possible to make a small garden for myself.  I found a countless amount of ideas.  I will be trying a few of these ideas out to see which ones work best.  How it turns out for me, may be entirely different than what works for everyone else.  It depends on your location, how much sunlight your balcony/ window gets, what you’re growing etc.  I’m not even sure how this will work out.  Oh well, let’s start experimenting!

I wanted to use recycled items if possible.

For the first project, I am using 2L Soda bottles.  Quite a few people are concerned about growing herbs/ food/ plants in plastic containers. As we have been told, we should not reuse plastic water bottles because of BPA, and so on.  However, I found a good article that explains which ones are safer to use.  Take a look and read more here or here.

Hanging DIY Gardens (Perfect for Small Spaces)

Materials:

4 2L Soda Bottles

A Drill*

Rope

Scissors

Sharp Cutting Knife

*Instead of the drill, you can use scissors, or an xacto knife.  Basically, anything that you can use to safely cut the holes in the side of the bottles.  For this version of the planter, I needed a hole in the bottle cap.  Using a drill was the easiest way to achieve this.

Instructions

Depending on the tutorial, I have seen the bottles cut down to different sizes.  I cut mine closer to the bottom, right where the bottle starts to curve down a little bit. You can use a sharp knife to do this, but many people use scissors. I have also seen people who put tape all around the edges, right where you had cut.  This ensures the edges aren’t sharp.  I simply used scissors to make the edges dull.

Then, use the drill to put two holes on each side of the container about 5 cm from the edge.  You can use the lines on the bottle to keep them properly spaced out.  A hole punch would work well too but I felt like using a power tool for the fun of it.

At the same time, take the cap off of the bottle and drill a hole down the middle.  Ideally, this helps drain the water from the soil once you have done the planting.  Put the cap back on.

Next, take your rope and cut 2 equal lengths of it per bottle.  The length of the rope will depend on where you are hanging the bottles and how much slack you need to do so properly.

Take one end of the cut rope and put it through a hole from the outside in.  Do the same thing with the other end of the rope, but to the hole next to your first hole.  Repeat this step on the other side of the bottle.

Next, all that is left to do is to go and hang them up wherever you have planned.  Then, add the soil and seeds.  If you wanted to go the extra mile, you can always paint over the bottles.  Not only would this make them look beautiful, but it’s a fun project to do with kids!

Ta-Da!

See also:

The Best Ways To Inject Plant Power Into Your Patio

Make Your Backyard a Truly Relaxing Place

5 Top Trends To Improve Your Backyard