This month’s nature craft is a self-watering planter.  Reuse plastic soda bottles and grow plants from seed!  This craft idea is great for teaching your kids about plants and what they need to survive.

Materials:

• 2 Liter Bottles
• Potting Soil
• Seeds
• Thick String or Yarn
• Phillips Screwdriver
• Hammer
• Sharp Blade

Directions:

1. Cut the bottle in half.

2. Use a Phillips screwdriver and a hammer to punch a hole in the center of the bottle cap.

3. Cut a length of yarn/string about 1′-1.5′ long, double over and tie a loop on one end.

4. Thread the yarn/string through the hole in the bottle cap so that the knot is on the inside of the cap. This will act as a wick, drawing water up from the basin below and into the soil.  The plant will take only what it needs, so the soil moisture will be perfectly regulated.

5. Put the cap back on the bottle top and nest the top of the bottle in the base. As the plants grow and use up the water, you can just lift off the top to add more to the base instead of pouring it over the soil.  As the soil dries, water will be sucked up through the string into the pot.

6. Add potting soil and seeds. Label your bottle so that you remember what you planted.

7. Water! You need to water the soil from the top the first time in order to make sure that it is uniformly wet and that the string also is wet.  Otherwise the surface tension of the water will prevent the whole thing from working correctly.

8. Wait… And then watch your seeds grow!

Craft idea from Totally Kids Times.