New Zealand Garden Swap Newsletter

Turn those waste plastic bottles into something useful in your garden. Make them into mini cloches. Cloches can be expensive. Homemade versions can be made free. If you are willing to sacrifice a little beauty for a fully functioning that is not only cheap as it gets, but will go the distance, then the plastic bottle cloche is the way to go. I can't praise this device enough as I have used this method for some time and have produced uneaten, untrodden healthy plants. The bottle provides warmth and humidity needed during the vital initial growth as well as protection from dogs, cats and birds.

To make:

Take a large plastic drink bottle and take off the cap ands remove all labels.

Use a serrated knife to cut off the bottom of the bottle. You can up as far or down as far as you wish depending on the size you want to end up with, remembering that the plant is growing.

You can either cut the top off the bottle where it begins to form a dome or you can leave the top on.

Place the bottle over your plant and press it into the soil so that it holds firm .

The bottle can be left round the plant until it either forms roots and starts new leaves as in the case of a cutting, or until the plant outgrows the bottle as in the case of a seedling.

Voila, a healthy uneaten plant!

Having an open top allows water to be trickled down the inside of the bottle to water and of course allows the rain to water as well.

Happy growing!