Thrifty Thursday: Wine Bottles and Container Gardening

Whether you like red or white wine, the glass bottles are great for watering your plants. That's right, watering your plants.

I'm sure you've seen the glass watering bulbs on TV infomercials and to the right. The bulbs keep your plants from drying out by slowly releasing the water into the soil. Personally, I like the idea, but I don't need to buy another dinky item from TV (it reminds me of garden gnomes gone a muck). I came across the idea of using the wine bottles to water plants after renting a house while on vacation in Asheville, NC. Basically, the instructions go something like this:

1. Pick up a bottle of your favorite wine.
2. Drink your bottle of favorite wine.
3. Let someone else drive if you plan on going any place.
4. Sober up.
5. Wash out wine bottle. While washing bottle, remove label if you wish.
6. Fill bottle with water about 1/3-1/2 of the way.
7. Pick out the house plant or gardening container that needs to be watered. Holding your thumb over the bottle opening, invert the bottle, and shove the neck of the bottle a couple of inches into soil at a slight angle, resting the bottle lightly against the side of the container.
8. Repeat as necessary.

I haven't tried this with beer bottles, but I would imagine that the same principle would apply and you would be able to use them on smaller plants. However, I would only use wine bottles with larger sized pots, because if you use a smaller plant/pot the wine bottle will be much more noticeable and your house guests and visitors might think that you just haven't cleaned up since your last shindig.

I really love this idea: Reason to drink wine? Check. Healthy happy plants? Check. One less thing to tend to in your home? Check. Check. Check. Sounds like a win to me!