- They biodegrade.
- They are simple.
- They are cheap.
- I'm too lazy to take them out of another pot before putting them in the ground.
After going through a few stages of frustrations, I decided to say "Screw it. I'mma make me some pots." So, I did. My mother had been bringing me some newspaper for the past two weeks or so, so I knew I had plenty of paper to do it. This is what came out of my lack of peat pots~
Materials Needed:
- Newspaper (a full page will give you four small pots)
- Staples (something to just keep the sides together, you could use tape, glue, etc.)
- A bone folder (basically just something to give you nice crisp folds. You could use a ruler or pencil as a substitute)
Directions:
Grab a single sheet of news paper. Make sure it's one of the long ones that make up two different full text pages.
Rip it in half long wise.
Rip it in half again. At this point you should have four squares.
Though you may have four pieces now, we'll only be using one for the purpose of this tutorial.
Fold it in half.
Fold it in half again. It should now look like a small square. Just so you know, when I mention "unfolded" in later parts of this tutorial, never unfold it past this point. You want to keep it slightly thick so that it can retain at least a little water.
And another half fold.
When open it should look like this. To make my folds easier to see, I used a sharper to make the creases pop. This middle fold doesn't need to be deep at all. So long as you can see it, it's good.
Fold one of the sides in, bringing it into that last middle crease. Use your bone folder/straight edge to get a nice deep crease.
This is what it should look like unfolded.
You are going to repeat a fold to the center line on the other side. Make sure the creases fold in on the same side.
Another unfolded view. It should now look like four long panels.
Making the crease parallel, that is to say the opposite direction of the last, fold it in half again.
When open it should look like this. Once again, please keep in mind that all of the folds should be on the same side. You do want it to open a certain way, yes?
Fold it towards your center line one more.
Beginning to see how simple this is?
Last time I'll ask you fold to the center, I promise.
You should now have a grid of folds.
I've taken the liberty of marking what the squares are for this. The numbers go up and down, and the letters go across. For example, when I say A4, I mean the very bottom right square.
The square known as A1, I want you to fold it in on itself, bringing it in to crease a triangle pointed to the center of your squares.
Give it a nice crease along that folded edge, would you?
Make sure you get a nice line there.
Fold it along the side of A2.
Staple it in place. After taking an image of this step, I realized that you might not be able to see the staple very well, so I went around it with a sharpie again. So that line there is just me emphasizing where that staple is.
You are going to do the same to the A4 square. Pull it up to B4. One again, staple that sucker in place.
And another fold and staple create the third corner.
Go ahead and give it a fourth, would you?
BAM~ You, my dearest reader, are done. You have successfully (hopefully) created a nice little paper box for you to put plants in. Or really to put whatever you want in.
I've made way too many of these today.. way waaaaaaay too many.
