Just Makin' It: Make Your Own: Watering Can

It's Springtime. Yup. It's already hit 90 degrees here. BUT part of my New Year's Resolution this year is to have a successful garden. My dad, who has a HUGE garden and comes from a long line of farmers, has been guiding me step by step to help me out. It makes me wish I had paid attention when I was younger.

So in attempt to have a successful garden and get my kids involved, I found this great idea on Pinterest: make a watering can out of milk jug. We go through at least a gallon of milk a week, and I have been feeling pretty crummy throwing out those jugs. So every other jug or so I wash it out good, and save it. My original purpose was to make liquid laundry detergent (which is on my Make Your Own list), but since my dry laundry detergent is working well, I have all these milk jugs begging to be used. Lucky for me, I can now use one or two to water my plants...or have my kids do it! So...

Make Your Own: Watering Can

What You'll Need:

Milk jug, cleaned out (I cleaned mine out and then ran it through a wash in the dishwasher)
Sharp knife
Water
(optional) plant food (the kind that needs to be mixed with water)

Instructions:

Take the lid off the jug and place it on a sturdy surface. I put mine on my counter. Just make sure it is sturdy and level. With a sharp knife, pierce the top of the lid. Slowly and carefully turn the knife. This will make a nice little round hole. In the picture below, you can see my first attempt. On the left you can see where I thought if I just pierce the lid a few times it would work...uh no. You need little round holes like the one on the right.

2. Add plant food to the jug. Slowly add water to fill the jug. I really like doing this! I have no clue how much water my old watering can holds, so when the plant food instructions said "1 scoop per gallon", I was just guessing. This way, I know how much water! Yay!

I'm not advertising "Expert" plant food. It just happened to be what I got.

LABEL! You don't want someone to mistake this as kool-aid or something.

3. Begin using!

What I really love about this idea is that my kids can use it! While I am planting or putting away stuff, my kids can walk around the garden or yard and water the plants. ALSO, I hate having to drag my hose everywhere. The moment my dog sees the hose, she things it's playtime, so this reduces the chance of another destroyed hose. (For real, she rips the nozzle off the hose. We bought 4 hoses last summer). Finally, I love the way this pours out. It helps make sure I don't overwater my plants!