Milk bottle bird feeders.......

The January Challenge set by Laney Mead for Craft Pimp peeps is to create bird feeders using "stuff"  from around the house. A quick google search later and I found lots of examples of sweet simple milk bottle feeders which looked an excellent starter project to do with my little ones. I asked the kids to doodle some shapes for the openings on each side of the bottles and helped them cut them out.

They had loads of fun filling them up with wild bird seed mix which went everywhere. I pushed through old chopsticks for the birds to stand on and popped some wool through the handles to hang them up by.

Time will tell how much of the wild bird seed will stay in when the wind blows! I hope these turn out to be popular with the local wildlife (which includes a flock of green parakeets) so that my little ones can enjoy watching the birds come by for a snack.



The kids loved making these and the next plan is to make some kind of  bird cookies or fat balls :-D

Jolene xx

Plot 36 - Reuse, recycle, making newspaper pots!

One of my lovely chums recently showed me a fab  blog post with reuse/recycle ideas for potting on your seedlings. I was rather taken with the idea of these sturdy newspaper pots so decided to give it a go. As you can see I've made a rather bumper crop, two newspapers worth. Follow the link above to see how they were done, the post is superbly easy to follow.

I'd already started to think about re-purposing deli and food trays with some holes punched in the bottom, this one contains cauliflower and cabbage seedlings which are ready for thinning out and potting on. One of the great thing about these paper pots is that you can plant the whole thing in the ground when your plants are big enough to go outside.
 

The clear container here is a supermarket grape punnet, these are the perfect size for 6 paper pots and they already have holes in the bottom for drainage.

I made so many paper pots today as I have started off some wild flower seed mix for kiddies corner on the lottie. I sprinkled masses of different kinds of flower seed in 3 large trays like the one in my second picture. With plenty of paper pots to hand it will be a cinch to prick them out and pot them on. We just need to eat more grapes now!

The paper pots are all round brilliant idea, loved making them and so practical!

Have a lovely day, Jolene