Make your own paper plant pots!

We’re missing having our regular family volunteers on site, so we thought we’d give you some ideas of how you can grow your own food and flowers at home, instead of at the farm.

The first step to growing is sowing seeds, but what if you don’t have any pots?

Don’t worry, we’ve got you covered! All you need is newspaper and an empty round jar. Are you ready?

Firstly, lay out your newspaper, and tear a strip lengthways, about twice the height of your jar.

Next, lay the jar down at the end of the length of newspaper, so the bottom is sticking out slightly. You’ll need to grab the end of the jar later on, so make sure there’s enough room for your fingers to hold it.

Then, roll the jar up in the newspaper up to the end.

Turn the jar the right side up, then push the newspaper into the jar, so it’s scrunched up inside.

Then, turn the jar upside down again, and gently pull it out of the newspaper cylinder.

Turn the jar the right way up again, and carefully put it inside the newspaper pot, squashing down the paper inside. This will flatten the base.

Take the jar out of the newspaper, and there you have it! A Newspaper pot! Once you get the hang of it, you can make more!

Now it’s ready to fill up with compost. Fill it almost to the top, then make a little hole for the seed. You can do this with your finger, or the end of a pencil. Pop your seed in the hole and then cover up with a little more compost.

Label your pot with the name of the seed you planted on one side of the label, and the date on the other side, and slide it into the edge of the pot. Place your pot in a tray or on a saucer, and keep the compost moist, but not too wet. You can check on it every other day to make sure it hasn’t dried up, and within a couple of weeks your seed will have germinated.

When the plant is about as tall as the pot, and roots are starting to come out at the bottom, it’s time to plant it in a bigger pot. Your pot is made of newspaper, which rots away in soil, so you can plant it straight in a bigger pot or outside in the ground!

Newspaper pots are a great way of gardening without using plastic, and fun to make as well! Good luck with your pots, and with your growing!