Plastic Bottle Herb Garden

I found this great project in this book "ReadyMade: How to Make [Almost] Everything: A Do-It-Yourself Primer" by Shoshana Berger and Grace Hawthorne (also check out their very cool website at readymag.com.) It uses all of those pesky plastic bottles we have and it cost me about $3 to make. I just put a note up at work that said I was collecting bottles and I had enough in less than a week. I tweaked their directions a little bit, so these instructions are based on my modifications:

1. Collect 12- 24 oz. plastic bottles and 12- 16.9 oz. bottles.
2. Cut the smaller bottles in half. Drill 3 drainage holes in the bottom.
3. This part can be a little tricky, but you basically cut off half the front of the 24 oz. bottles so that the big bottles look like this (sorry for the terrible picture, but you get of the idea...) I found it easiest to hack of the top with a pair of scissors and then use a box cutter to lop of the "window" area.
4. Drill a hole in the "hanging" part of the big bottles.
5. I found this sweet owl picture at a thrift store for $1.50. It's all painted wood, so I was able to hammer 12 nails directly into it, but you could use any piece of wood.
6. Then you hang your pre-drilled big bottles up.
7. Plant your little bottles (I used aloe vera, geraniums, and started some tomato plants from seed I took from T-Gro's fruit.) Smaller, or starter, plants work best.
8. Slide your little bottles into the bigger, hanging bottles.
9. Enjoy your sweet work!

Update: I already killed the geraniums!! But, the aloe seems to be doing very well.