DIY Mini Greenhouse

Upcycling an old soda bottle to give your plants a healthy head start

Hello and welcome to Joe Shows How! Hope your summer is going well. Gardening and landscaping has always been popular with DIYers. But this statistic surprised me: a staggering 80% of U.S. households participate in lawn and gardening activities, according to a survey conducted by Garden Research. And each household spends on average $616 annually planting and maintaining lawns and gardens. So, here at Joe Shows How, we’ll continue to share ways for you to get the most out of your time working the soil. In this week’s video, I show how to create a mini-greenhouse, or cloche, from an empty two-liter soda bottle. This is an incredibly easy and effective way to protect seedlings prior to transplanting them into the garden.

Start by marking a line around the soda bottle about 2 inches up from where its straight sides meet the rounded bottom. Next, use a utility knife to cut along the line, severing the bottom from the bottle. Discard the bottom and use the upper portion of the bottle as the mini-greenhouse. Now, take the bottle, set it over your sprouted seedlings, and wiggle it into the soil at least 1/2 inch or so. The clear plastic bottle will capture the sun’s energy and heat, and any condensation that forms inside will drip down and help hydrate the soil. Just be aware that it can get very hot inside the bottle, so twist off the cap on very sunny days to allow the excess heat to escape. And then replace the cap at night to keep the plants cozy and warm.

After the seedlings are fully established, remove the bottle and transplant them into your garden. Here’s wishing you a very happy and bountiful gardening season!