Make an inexensive, creative container with buttons and a tissue box.
In our recent article about cardboard gardening, we encourage you to use cardboard throughout your garden. One way we did this was with a tissue box, and a pile of buttons. Here’s how:
Materials
- Tissue box
- Buttons
- Glue (dries clear like Mod Podge)
- Save that tissue box! We have another use for it. Gather up a few if you want to have a little collection. You can paint the box first. Or just let it be like we did here.
- Apply the glue with your fingertip in sections. Then press the buttons on, one by one. You can create a pattern with the buttons or mix them all up together.
- You might have to do one side at a time and let it dry in between.
- Once you have all sides “buttoned up,” you can fill the box with soil and plant your favorite herb or small plant. Keep it on a windowsill in your house or put it outside in a somewhat protected area.
Remember this is cardboard—don’t expect it to last more than a season or two at the most. But we think it’s a fun, quick and cheap way to create a container without spending a lot of money! Do you have a clever idea for using cardboard in the garden? We want to hear it! Send us your idea and photo using our Submit Your Story form. If we use it in the magazine, we’ll send you $50!
BONUS: Here’s a tip our art director, Sue Myers, came up with. Line your box with a plastic bag. This will help it stay stronger a little longer.
{ 8 comments… read them below or add one }
I just read an article by Stacy Tornio on Cardboard Gardening in your May 2012 issue. I am the President of the Cameron County Master Gardeners Association and would like to share some of this information with my association. Do I have to have permission from the Author or Birds and Blooms magazine to do that?
Um ok cute but awful lot of time spent putting buttons on only to have the planter fall apart in less than a season—most glues dissolve with moisture so your buttons are going to fall off mighty quick, I am thinking! And the sides will start to bulge out-not so cute.
How about painting inside of box with polyurethane before buttoning up and then coat afterwards with same. Punch drainage holes in the bottom before the shellacking. OR you could just do as you have done but drop it over the top of a potted plant in a plain pot to jazz it up? That can be recycled if you do not get water on it-might last longer that way.
NEVER THOUGHT OF DOING THIS . ITS A GREAT IDEA . GOING TO TRY IT . THANKS
Cut out bottom of the box & put it over a plant in a small pot. The button box will last longer.
This is cute but wouldn’t the cardboard disintegrate after you had watered the plant afew times? I might try it BUT I think I would put the soil into a plastic bag(basggie,maybe?) so it would not fall apart. Especially after you spend all that time & effort glueing the buttons on it !!
I think it may keep a childs interest doing on a rainny day; they would get a kick out of it.
Then put a small potted flower in it. You could even put a sm pot, soil, and a seed to
grow so they could watch it.
a question: what is “awaiting moderation”?
Put soil & seed in the box. Put the box on a tray to protect table top. Water seed – gently – don’t make it soggy. Use a “Baster” to place water precisly. When plant is established & ready to be planted outdoors, dig a hole deep enough to bury entire box! Box slowly decomposes, plant is protected from pests till they are larger. No transplant trama to plant from root damage or change of soil temp. And guess what? Set them in a trench side by side & each plant will be 6 inches apart! The boxes don’t need decorating for this.