paper pots

Thanks for all the nice comments about Kate's Show & Tell and thanks also for the feedback on my paper pots. I mentioned that there was a way to make them without the expensive wooden form. For all those who were interested here's a quick tutorial to make these biodegradable pots using a glass jar. These are the steps:

1. Choose a jar with straight or parallel sides, you could use a glass or even a tin can but make sure the sides are dead straight not tapered or it will be hard to roll. For me a large Vegemite jar proved to be the closest match for the wooden potmaker. I'm using sheets of paper from a tabloid format paper or a liftout from a broadsheet. Take a spread that's folded in half (it needs to be double thickness at least) and rip pieces about 15cm/5 inches wide along the full depth (about 28cm/11"). I can make three pieces from one, leaving a small remainder at the end.

2. Roll it around the jar till the ends meet and secure with sticky tape.

3. Fold under the overlapping bottom edges. You might need to experiment to get the right length of paper to fold under, it should overlap but not come past the pot edge. Push the jar down on a solid surface to compact the bottom. The wooden potmaker I have has a slightly indented edge which gives a natural seal to the pot but for the jar version I used another piece of sticky tape to make sure this stays flat.

4. Fill with soil and pot on your seedling, take a cutting or sow some seeds!

By luck I found this piece of left over wrapping paper the perfect size and made up another pot with the wrap on the outside. A nice way to pass on a cutting, some flower seeds, a herb plant or a strawberry plant baby, team it with a colourful icecream stick ($2 shop for these) and you have a simple present. The wrap will warp and discolour after a while from watering but they still look cute. Don't handle these pots too much when wet or they might rip, but when they are dry they are surprisingly strong, I had a few which lasted months until they got planted out.
Oh and one of those waxed flat vegie box/trays make a great seed tray to hold the pots and move them round the garden.