Saw this on a facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/pages/...





Shared the link on ATP's facebook page, and we've been discussing the praticality. I don't see drainage, and Trish was wondering what happens with the plants grow up. Near as I can tell, these are 20oz soda bottles. Maybe the big 2-liter ones would work better, but I figured y'all are the container experts, and it might bring an interesting conversation.

What do y'all think? If it IS practical, what would be the best plants for it?

Hmmm... I'm thinking salad greens, mesclun etc. Up off the ground and away from slugs and snails. Plus, their life span is limited anyway because they get eaten. One could always drill holes for drainage.

I wonder what my neighbors would think if they woke up one morning and found all these pop bottles attached to the cyclone fence between our properties...

Connie- what about space??

My lettuce right now is easily 12" across. Looks like cilantro, maybe? That's quite a tall plant if allowed to flower (for coriander) with quite an extensive root system. Although if you ate all of these things really early and young you'd be ok, although you'd have to continue to replant plugs.

That would probably be a good idea, especially in a cooler climate where you could get greens throughout the growing season.

pardalinum said:
I wonder what my neighbors would think if they woke up one morning and found all these pop bottles attached to the cyclone fence between our properties...

I know what my one neighbor would think, and it would NOT be pretty!

HA!
reduce, REUSE, recycle....
lot of work for not the prettiest effort, but hey, why not?

Trish, by "salad greens" I'm talking about cutting before they get real big. Baby leaves. If I lived over on the coast I could grow them all summer and maybe even get full heads of lettuce but here in the valley it gets hot and I really haven't had any success with that (growing full heads like you see in the store).

Quite frankly, I don't think it is worth the bother to cut openings in all those bottles. There are plenty of other containers around that work well.

Ah, I see it was a school project.
Very good for the younguns to learn about possibilities!

Yes, that's what I was trying (unsuccessfully, I guess) to say above. I totally agree with you.

I've become really critical of pictures and ideas lately. Seeing things on pinterest and magazines will a whole new eye...Too many things are really just set up for pictures and articles and big business, . While pretty and artistic, they are not at all practical for real use and gardening. The soda bottle wall for example: perhaps not as "cool", and likely wouldn't gain as much attention, but there are many many more ways to make it more functional so that it really could be used to feed people. Which to me, is what I like to see promoted and taught- reality.

Ok- I'm going to (try to get) off my soapbox now.

[pssst- real gardeners with real gardens rock! ]

YOU ROCK too, Trish!

Interesting, but I don't think it is for me. First of all, attaching it to a brick fence just wouldn't work.
I like just odd containers with room for the roots to grow.

Trish said:Yes, that's what I was trying (unsuccessfully, I guess) to say above. I totally agree with you.

I've become really critical of pictures and ideas lately. Seeing things on pinterest and magazines will a whole new eye...Too many things are really just set up for pictures and articles and big business, . While pretty and artistic, they are not at all practical for real use and gardening. The soda bottle wall for example: perhaps not as "cool", and likely wouldn't gain as much attention, but there are many many more ways to make it more functional so that it really could be used to feed people. Which to me, is what I like to see promoted and taught- reality.

Ok- I'm going to (try to get) off my soapbox now.

[pssst- real gardeners with real gardens rock! ]

Thing is, they're promoting it as a sustainabilty/functional food-raising option. Not sure it really is. It keeps plastic bottles out of landfills, but so does my recycle bin.

I just don't think the kids are learning anything about a good diet. All those soda bottles surely were emptied first, and I doubt they were poured down the sink.

By the way, Oregon charges 5 cent deposit on fruit juice, water, beer, and soda bottles and pop cans. The government considers us all too stupid to put the empties into recycle bins.

I agree that they would work really well with smaller greens and herbs. Also would work well with shallow rooted succulents plants, silene, campanula (the small varieties, and so much more. I am really liking that idea. : )

It's just a "thinking outside the box" experience.
It IS pretty, in its symmetry.
A nicely arranged vertical garden.
Just would be prettier with a prettier container.

Pard said:

"By the way, Oregon charges 5 cent deposit on fruit juice, water, beer, and soda bottles and pop cans. The government considers us all too stupid to put the empties into recycle bins."

Calfornia does that, too aand I WISH Pennsylvania did. Plenty of people here are too STUBBORN to recycle. They haven't grown out of the "recycling costs jobs" mentality yet. Tho so MANY other green things SOAR here. Pittsburgh has free curbside pickup of glass bottles, paper, cardboard, and plastics 1-5. Just put em out, all mixed up, in a blue bag and away they go. There are at least 40 houses on my block and less than half put out blue bags.

Personally, I have been recycling since 1979.

My first reaction was "burn out" The plants would get leggy and die due to lack of room.