Thursday, September 27, 2012

A little ray of sunshine ...

There is nothing like a little sunshine to encourage a body to go outside and plant something is there? It has been a perfect Spring day  here today so I decided to plant out some herb seedlings and have a general post-Winter tidy up of the pot plants. I really let things go over the Winter months. It is a mess. Just look at this ...


That my friends is what happens when good intentions - I'll clean those and put them in the recycling bin - do not come to fruition. Eewwwwww!  Yet I knew there had to be a use for so many cans - they are amazing objects really and it seems a shame to waste them. Firstly of course they had to be cleaned. I got to work on them with hot soapy water and a scrubber sponge. I wore good, thick rubber gloves too 'cos the inside rim can be a bit sharp. They came up a treat - nice and shiny.


Removing the glue used to adhere the label was a bit of an effort - I used eucalyptus oil which worked well but it still requires a bit of elbow action. I decided to use these to pot up some leftover seedlings. My mother-in-law was an excellent gardener - she even managed to grow a banana palm in the Adelaide Hills - and it bore fruit! She was a post-war migrant and never wasted anything so she would use whatever containers were at hand to strike plants etc. Yogurt pots, margarine containers - you name it she would whack a plant in it. Her trick apparently was to put a piece of sponge in the bottom of the container and then top it up with soil. So I figured I would follow suit - I hacked up an old sponge, filled to pot with soil and planted my little herbs etc.


I will let you know how they grow. I am guessing the tins might get a bit rusty over time but I think that would add to their appeal. I s'pose you could give them a coat of clear varnish if you wanted them to stay shiny ...
These would be nice to give away. As a final gift-giving touch, I added a label.


The only truly difficult part of this project was seeing the look of disappointment on my dog's face every time I came inside with an empty can of dog food!


Poor old Rex - he has to wait until dinner time!

4 comments:

Numinosity said...

That pic of Rex is hilarious! How refreshing to see a spring planting post instead of a harvest and autumn.
I love knowing that other creative types balance out their lives with gardening and other worthy pursuits.

Emma said...

That is a hysterically funny/wonderful pic of your poor denied dog! Great use for those cans but I quite thiught you'd flatten & cut them into something ;)

Melissa said...

Poor Rex, plants look great

Two Dog Pond said...

Now that is some straight stamping! Great use for the tin cans...I was holding my breath hoping you weren't going to make a giant tin man and hang him in the garden. ha.