Turn Kitchen Trash Into Indoor Garden Treasure Using An Old Milk Carton

You may not have given the materials that make up a paper milk carton much thought. These reliable bricks are lined with a thin layer of plastic that helps keep them water-tight. That plastic lining is also what makes milk cartons hard to recycle in some communities. If you have a carton that you'd like to save from the landfill, morph it into a planter for quick-growing microgreens. This tiny crop that even a novice can grow can bring you an indoor harvest in as little as a week. Turn a carton sideways, slice away one of the sides, fill it with soil and seeds, and top with a bit of water. you can have a crop of fresh greens right in your kitchen or living room.

The impermeable container not only holds in the soil and water, but you can also be confident that it's food-safe. You can start an entire garden with the help of repurposed milk cartons. However, there are other foods that come in packaging with the same potential. Soups or juices that come in Tetra Briks can also stand in as planters, since they share milk cartons' water-tight qualities and oft-difficult ability to be recycled. Why not create a patchwork microgreen garden with a collection of milk and juice boxes that can hold a different green each? Really, any rectangular-shaped plastic or plastic-lined food or drink container will work beautifully for this indoor gardening trick.

Besides the many benefits of keeping more trash out of landfills, milk cartons have a handful of other qualities commending them for housing microgreens. Turned on their sides, milk cartons are the perfect depth for plants with shallow root systems. They don't hold overwhelming quantities of dirt, and covering the surface with densely-planted seeds will still yield a satisfying output. We all like saving money, and fresh produce grown from a repurposed container is a great way to do that. A package of microgreens from the grocery store or farmers' market can set you back around $10, but a packet of seeds, like Todd's Seeds Sprouting Seed Mix is about same price but will give you many harvests.

You have to take drainage into consideration when planting in a repurposed milk carton. For your soil to provide healthy plant growth, poke some holes in the bottom of the carton before filling it with soil and seeds. You can also enhance the container's drainage with a variety of materials to relieve your plants of excess moisture. With newly-bored drainage holes, you'll need to place some sort of tray beneath the carton to catch water and soil that wash through. Continue your upcycling theme by using a single-use plastic container that's slightly larger than the carton. Sit your planter on top of one half of a clamshell pastry container, on the lid of a Styrofoam egg tray, or even inside a plastic produce bag with the sides rolled down.