Spare the peat bogs -- start your seedlings in pots made from toilet paper rolls - Fresh Dirt

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Spare the peat bogs -- start your seedlings in pots made from toilet paper rolls

Posted by Sunset, October 24, 2009

By Sharon Cohoon, Sunset senior garden writer

Blogger Adriana Martinez, our favorite anarchist--she calls herself a cross between Martha Stewart and the Sex Pistols--passed on a great gardening tip on E's That Morniing Show recently. (That's Martinez below being prepped for filming.)

Timthumb

Instead of using those little peat pots to start your seedlings, suggests Martinez, make your own biodegradable pots out of empty toilet paper rolls, which she then demonstrates how to do. Looks easy. And it's good for the planet and your wallet, too. Clever girl, that Adriana.

See her do it in the video below.

Posted at 08:30 AM | Permalink

Technorati Tags: Adriana Martinez, Anarchy in the Garden, empty toilet paper rolls, starting seeds

Comments

Neat idea.

You can also make them out of folded newspaper (without forking out for the little molds for that, just by hand), and those seedlings can be planted directly in the ground without disturbing the roots like removing the cardboard probably does a bit.

The cardboard can go into the compost pile or compost recycling, I don't think I'd put dirty cardboard in paper recycling.

I'm never buying seedlings in plastic pots again. I see no reason why all gardening places can't change to the pressed cardboard pots, the waste of those plastic pots must be enormous.

Posted by:Karen Anne | October 25, 2009 at 05:36 AM

Hi Karen Anne,

Actually, you do not have to remove the seedling from the bathroom tissue roll. You transplant into the garden as is; it will decompose.

-Adriana

Posted by:Anarchy in the Garden | October 25, 2009 at 08:35 PM

Stupid question...but, can I use paper towel rolls as well if I cut them down to size? I wasn't sure if there was a difference in the cardboard.

Posted by:Tricia | November 08, 2009 at 11:14 AM

Paper towel rolls are a little thicker so they would take a bit longer to decompose. But otherwise I see no problem.

Posted by:sharon | November 08, 2009 at 03:44 PM