Flower Pots for Next to Nothing pt. 2

If you’ve been keeping up with my admittedly sporadic posts, you know that I have been working on killing the overgrowth in my garden by smothering it with potted plants. My first experiment with Folgers containers are holding up well, so I used them as the base for this new design.

I started by removing the label, then measuring bamboo skewers to fit into the straight parts of the container. It has bulges at the top and bottom, and I wanted to glue the skewers flush with the sides. I cut the skewers down to size using old wire snips from my jewelry making tools. I attached them as shown using hot glue.

I'm afraid I waited a bit long to transplant these last begonias. Most of the blooms have gone. Still...

The bulges in the can I covered using jewelry making cord. I attached this with hot glue too. Once cooled, I flipped the whole thing over and stabbed a few drainage holes in the bottom. The finished project turned out even better than the first design in my opinion. What do you think?

Flower Pots for Next to Nothing pt. 1

When I moved into my apartment a few years ago, I was thrilled to have a tiny garden area I could play with. Small doesn’t really even begin describe the space, but its mine. Problem is, that being strapped for money, I couldn’t afford to buy much for the space. My neighbor worked as a landscaper at the time and was able to get me canna lilies, some sort of bamboo, some purple flower that grows on long vines that look like twigs (don’t know the name) and umbrella grass. I love his initiative, but these are all plants that grow wildly out of control. Rather than digging all of this up, I have come up with the idea of limiting them by covering them with potted flowers instead. Pots cost money though, and there just isn’t much (well any) to spare.

I started looking through my collected odd and ends and realized I had a few usable containers around the house. The one I started with was a small plastic Folgers Coffee can. Its bright red and obviously and old Folgers container so that needed changing. I remembered a post where a woman covered her whole floor in paper bags. It looked a bit like leather when it was done, and I liked that idea. I pulled out my trusty Mod Podge, a paint brush, a small paper bag and got to work. I ripped the paper bags into smallish pieces and applied them to the container making sure to overlap each of the pieces and the top and bottoms of the containers. Then I coated the entire outside in another layer of Mod Podge to weatherproof it. I like how it turned out, despite the fact that the red shows through. I paired the two I made in this style with red begonias (under $2 for a flat of 6 at Walmart). They look cute in the garden.

The first coffee can planter all finished and filled.

The terra cotta planter I already had made a good home too.

I haven’t come up with a plan for the next few planters. I have a few large coffee cans, plenty of glass bottles, and a few plastic bottles and jugs to work with. Any suggestions? Please leave them in the comments below.

Another Cat Toy Done on the Cheap

Willow (previously known as Test Kitten, T.K. for short) has grown, and so have her needs. She gained size, but lost none of her energy, and so needs more cat safe activities to keep her out of trouble. When I noticed how excited she got over some pool noodles that hubby and I bought (to be featured in  another project), I figured that would be the perfect building block for Willow's new scratchy-batty-chew toy.

Early test to see if she's even interested. She is!

The base was the side of a drawer from my soon to be replaced (fingers crossed) wardrobe. We stabilized it using small sections of pool noodle cut in half length-wise secured with duct tape . The longer vertical section of noodle was secured with my trusty Gorilla Glue.The fuzzy ladybug toy was from a package of assorted toys. She played with it maybe 3 times since getting it, and it had a dangle to tie it to something, so I did. I poked a length of ribbon through the top of the noodle and knotted it at a length to facilitate maximum swinging. 

Shortly after this pic, the toy was attacked from above.

I covered the base using some scrap fabric I had laying around. I figured she would think the duct tape was the real novelty and so this cover seemed like a good idea. It looks better too. Although this doesn't get as much love as some other toys, she still loves to beat this mercilessly. Another win on the cheap.

After many attacks a few weeks later. As you can see, it stands up to the Willow test.