Crafty Corner: Homemade Seedling Planters
Posted on May 2, 2013 by bob in Crafter's Corner
For a fun, educational, and best of all for young folks – GROSS – weekend activity, make homemade seedling planters. It’ll spark your grandchild’s interest in growing things, and get them outside to enjoy the pleasant weather. It’s relatively simple, inexpensive, and easily broken down into three steps – Friday night, Saturday and Sunday. Best of all, once completed, the grandkids will insist on returning often to check on the growth status of their seedlings.
Materials Needed: Newspaper, blender, muffin tin, potting soil, seeds, sunshine.
If you’re like me, you have old newspapers lying around waiting to be used for…something. Your Friday night segment starts with destruction, always a fun activity for young ones.
Tear several pages of newspaper into strips or squares. Nothing too big, and there doesn’t have to be a pattern. It takes roughly one newspaper page for each seedling planter (muffin cup). Once you’ve torn enough paper for the number of ‘planters’ in your muffin tin, place the paper in a bowl of water and soak overnight.
Your Saturday segment starts with putting the soaked newspaper into a blender with enough water to cover the paper. You’ll have to find a good rhythm to blend the pulp, but when done, it should feel like the bottom of the lake between your toes – gross and unappealing to adults, but a wonderful sensory opportunity for the kids. (Note: Wash the blender thoroughly when finished to avoid pulp residue in your morning smoothie!)
Take the pulp out of the blender, place it in a strainer/colander, and squeeze out some of the water. Don’t get all the water out. The pulp needs to be moldable. If it’s too dry it won’t stick together.
Take a palm of pulp and press it into the bottom of the tin, then do the same with the sides to form ‘pulp cups’. Once the pulp is pressed into the muffin tin, use a paper towel and carefully soaked up as much water as you can. You can’t get it all, but you’ll be surprised what a little pressure will produce. Your next ingredient is outside – sunshine.
Place the muffin tin/pulp planters in the sun. Depending on the amount of sunlight, the temperature and humidity, it can take all day for the planters to dry. An overcast, humid day is not the best for this outdoor step. Don’t remove the planters until they’re completely dry or they might fall apart. The final day of your three-day adventure is Sunday, planting day!
With your planters are completely dry, fill them with soil, poke in a seed of two of your favorite growing thing, add a little water, and let Nature take over. A wonderfully protective environment for your planters is a window sill with a bowl underneath to catch excess water. After the seedlings sprout, you’ll have another fun weekend when the little ones return to plant the whole thing – homemade planters, soil, and sprouting seeds – in your backyard.
Callie Corley
Callie Corley began crafting when she was old enough to hold a pencil, squeeze a glue bottle, and use a pair of scissors. Send pictures and a description of this project, or any of your craft projects, to primemagdesign@gmail.com.
