This is a fun garden project for kids and beginners.
This onion bottle planter project, came around after finding a leftover box of onions sets that had been forgotten at the back of the cupboard.
They had started to develop tiny green shoots in protest at not being planted in spring.
The problem is we have no space left in our plot but you know my love of growing leftovers.
So, why not grow them as green onions in a fun project that the kids will love?
My daughter hates onions, but she’s incredibly crafty so when she was itching to help in the garden, the bottle onion garden project was born.
I’d seen similar projects around pinterest so I had an idea of what we wanted to try so we gathered the materials and got started.
This is a great project for kids because you get instant results so no hanging around waiting for seedlings to sprout.
You can use any type of onion, from spring onion to scraps from larger onions.
Onions are easy to grow and your going to harvest the green shoots so they will crop over and over so well worth trying.
This is how to make an onion bottle planter
For this project we will be using left over onion sets. I think theses ones are the variety Radar.
To make the onion bottle garden you will need;
- large wide plastic bottle
- Onions sets
- Scissors
- Multipurpose Compost
We started with a cleaned out large soda bottle and a bowl of sprouted onions.
First, cut the top off the bottle where it starts to slope inwards at the top. We then cut 2 drainage holes in the bottom of the bottle before we put a shallow layer of stones in the bottle to aid drainage.
Now it’s time to cut a small hole in each corner just above the stones.
Place a layer of potting soil on top of the stones and place 4 onion sets, one through each hole, then lay the roots or root end onto the compost.
If your using sprouted onions like we are, you will have to push the growing tips through the holes from the inside.
Whats Next?
To make your next row, take another 4 holes just above the soil line, but this time make your holes in between the other holes so they’re staggered. That way as your green shoots grow and aim for the sky they aren’t totally swamping each other. Again, plant your onions and cover with soil.
On your 3rd layer, place your holes back in the.original place on the bottle. We used a square bottle which worked well for spacings as we used the corners for our first layer of holes and the middle of each straight side to put our second layer and so on. Keep going till you have filled the bottle to the top.
Once we filled the bottle, we planted the last 3 onions right in the top.
Give the onions a good watering with a watering can and your done. You could make holes and thread through a string to hang your planter up off the balcony for example but we will keep ours on the windowsill.
Because our onions sets had started growing already, we didn’t have to wait long before it became a flush of green onions shoots to harvest.
Simply keep your onion bottle planter watered and it will reward you with a wonderful supply of fresh greens.I hope you enjoyed this project with your family. Remember to comment below and let us know your favourite garden projects.
