Sowing your seeds: Making plant pots

Make your plant pots by recycling old newspapers.

There are two ways of doing this – making papier mache or shaping the pages.

The simpler method is to shape the pages.

1. Take a big single sheet of newspaper – a sheet from the News of the World, for example, that contains, say, the front and back page - and fold it in half long ways.

2. Place an empty toilet tissue roll on the folded edge of your newspaper.

3. Hold the edge of the sheet of newspaper and roll it around the toilet roll holder.

4. Pack the end of the newspaper inside the toilet roll to form a base and carefully remove the toilet roll holder.

5. Finally, flatten the base on the inside of the pot using a small wooden spoon or a rule.

To make papier mache pots…

1. Tear the newspaper to strips (it’s best to wait until people have read it first!)

2. Now mix some flour and water to make the papier mache paste. You need 1 part flour to 2 parts water. You will want it to be the consistency of thick glue, but you also want it to be runny and not too thick. Add more water or flour as necessary. Mix well to remove any lumps.

3. Soak your newspaper in the paste, remove the excess and press the newspaper into a mould to make the pot. The mould could be a cup, yoghurt carton or any other similarly shaped object. Build up layers of the paper to make a sturdy pot.

4. Leave to dry thoroughly.

Alternatively you could also plant your seeds in old yoghurt pots, plastic food trays or cut-down juice bottles. Just make sure they are cleaned and rinsed.

Next step...

Now click on the ‘Planting your seeds’ on the left of this page to find out what to do next.