Houseplant Watering Tips

Most of you know that I usually kill houseplants. Heck, I even kill plastic and silk plants. But for now, I've been keeping alive a foster-plant. It's a window box planter my neighbors asked me to care for until they return in October - half of it is catnip, the other half some anonymous purple flowering vine. I'm also trying to raise two cucumber plants on my driveway to maturity. So far, they are all still alive.

Each morning and night, I water them from plastic watering buckets. The one planter, however, is up on my front porch, a bit away from the back driveway where the cukes are. I've been trying to water that one from Big Gulp plastic cups. I don't want to bring a big watering bucket around each day. But I couldn't think of another solution.

Eureka! Today, I happened to realize that I have nice handy watering jugs sitting in my pantry. I thoroughly rinsed out a plastic Clorox jug that was almost in the air, being ready to toss to the recycle bin. I rinsed it over and over to make sure all the bleach was out of it. It is just perfect and even holds enough for two soakings, one day's worth.

Here is what I've noticed after taking a quick visual tour of my pantry and kitchen, regarding re-purposing jugs for watering use.

GOOD
bleach, large syrup, large vinegar, liquid detergent

BAD
milk - these tend to be too flimsy - I'd want a jug to last a few months or even a year or two

Gee - I am SO proud of me!!!!!