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Happy Earth Day! I'm excited to partner with EcoScraps today to show you guys an easy DIY project, share some eye-opening facts, and give away a $50 Home Depot gift card! First off, the facts. Did you know that in the United States, we waste 40% of the food produced, enough to fill the Rose Bowl every day?! It sits in landfills producing methane, which is 20x more harmful than CO2...and the #1 most wasted food is bagged salads. That one really got me, since I am totally guilty of throwing away bagged salads that we intended to eat but forgot about. It happens way too often. So one thing I'm planning to do is to buy bagged salad on the same day that we plan to eat it, and only in the amount that we'll actually finish in that day. That's something small I can change in my life. On a larger scale, EcoScraps has been working hard to reuse food waste and keep it out of landfills. Between 2011 and 2015, they recycled 75 millions lbs of food waste by turning it into organic, all natural garden products. And in 2016 alone, they are planning to match that number with another 75 millions lbs recycled! So if you're doing some gardening this year, definitely look for EcoScraps soil at your local Home Depot.
Since we live in a rental, I've never put a lot of effort into landscaping our tiny garden space. It just didn't seem worth it for something we couldn't take with us when we move. However, I do love plants and was feeling a little left out this spring, with so many of my friends posting photos of their gardens and yards. So I decided to add some potted plants by the front door! It's a small-scale way to add some greenery to our lives, and can easily be taken with us if we end up moving this year. Also...one of these planters was a DIY project! Can you tell which one?
If you guessed the square one, you are correct. I liked the shape of it, but wanted to add a little texture to give it some personality (inspired by this planter). In the spirit of Earth Day, I decided to use materials I already had at home. I found a square wooden dowel that was leftover from another project (this table runner), and cut it into 1.5" pieces.
I drew two parallel lines around the center of the planter as guides and carefully glued the wood pieces within the guide lines. Then, I spray painted the whole thing white.
Lastly, I transplanted my plant and filled the planter with EcoScraps potting mix.
What I like about this project is that it's easy to make your own version. Look around your house and see what you already have that could add some texture to a plain planter. Pieces of wood, wine corks cut in half, etc. There are lots of possibilities! You can do a random pattern or something more orderly, like mine. Whatever you choose to do, have fun with it.
Also! EcoScraps is giving away a $50 Home Depot gift card that you can use for whatever gardening and home projects you're working on this spring. Enter below.
a Rafflecopter giveaway
Let me know what you think of this project...and I'd also love to hear if there's anything you do to reduce food waste in your life? I'll be honest, it's not something I've given a lot of thought to in the past, and I think Ben and I could definitely make some improvements that would be good for the earth and good for our bank account.
Thanks to EcoScraps for sponsoring this post, and giving me some food for thought this Earth Day! If you'd like to know more about them, be sure to check out this video.
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A project I am doing this weekend is a really long gutter garden on our deck. I want to plant strawberries, lavender, spinach, green onions and possibly carrots.
I'm planting spinach and green onions, that way I can use them fresh because I always buy them and waste a lot of it. So I figured, if I grew them I would be less likely to waste them!
On another note, I tried to enter the contest above, but it doesn't give me any options to earn entries. It just says 0/0 and the bottom portion only shows '$50 Home Depot Gift Card.
Nice! That sounds amazing.
Also, sorry about the Rafflecopter issues this morning! Should be fixed now, and leaving a blog post comment is one way to earn entries! So give it another try :)
What a great project! I love a container garden. We finally bought a composter earlier this spring and I am NERDING OUT over it. I love that I can put food scraps to use instead of throwing them out. I'm determined to work on my garden and improve my green thumb this spring, and the compost is definitely a motivator.
That's AWESOME! Good for you. After all, it's impossible to cut food scraps down to zero (you'll always have egg shells, apple cores, and banana peels!). I would feel a lot better about it if we had a composter and could put those scraps to good use.
P.S. If you had trouble entering the giveaway this morning, I think the issue is fixed now!
Love this! We're planning to build a vegetable garden in our backyard this summer and I love the idea of reducing down to only our homegrown veggies to reduce how much we buy and waste. If we added some potted herbs in some cute planters too, that would be perfect!
So cool Aileen! I always like to have a few plants inside and have been wanting to redo some of them. Making a planter is a fun DIY idea.
Such a great idea. I have a few pots that could use a little sprucing up.
Fun and easy project! Thanks for giving me something to think about!
Great learning about eco scraps!
Love this idea! So simple and pretty :)
I'm hoping to move to a bigger place soon and this gift card would be great for making it feel like home :)
This is so cool! Thank you so much for this opportunity!
Those planters are super cute. I don't think I've ever seen any like them before. They seem like making/painting would make a really fun project to do this spring. I have a few tomato plants and they would look really nice in them I think. I was just wondering what you did for drainage?
Thanks, Samantha! I just added the wood blocks to a plain planter that already had a drainage hole. Easy peasy!
Thank you! :)
Love the planter DIY - super inspiring! Also, my husband and I are in the guilty camp on bagged salads. I've started buying the spinach from the fresh section. It's ways cheaper and we use it up right away. Something about it being in a bag makes me let it sit.
I love cruising the aisles at Home Depot, and they have nice plants! How nice these planters came out!
Thanks for the chance! I have been at Home Depot a lot recently getting the lawn and garden ready.
Just came back from Home Depot! Got a ton of hardware!
such a cute planter idea!
We compost food scraps, vegetable peelings, etc to use in gardening
For landscaping, we're adding native plants to the yard. Amazing how just a small patch of habitat attracts native wildlife. Your planter project would be great for adding some more pots of milkweed for monarch butterflies around the place.
love going to home depot
Planning the DIY projects for my wedding and the Home Depot gift card would be so helpful for supplies!
I've been interested in starting an herb garden and this would be perfect!
Cute planter!
Love how the planter turned out....I'd love to do something similar for my window herbs. This is totally doable. Thank you.
This is great! I am lucky enough to live on a farm so my food waste is very misleading minimal- we compost most, and the chickens and cows are always excited for any leftovers.
I also have an amazing vegetable garden and keep my herbs in containers- love the look of the three you have!
home depot always has such a great variety of products
We are working a lot around the house this spring, so this would be great!
Love this idea!
I love the planter, what a neat idea!
demureprincess7(at)gmail(dot)com
Love the planters. I have a few I would love to dyi. Thanks for the idea!
Love this idea!
I love this project idea. We're going to work on our garden this Spring.
Planters are always so unnecessarily expensive--I love the idea of "shopping" my own home!
I love this project! I want to give it a try. As for reducing food waste, we actually compost! I work at a composting company that offers residential weekly pickups, maybe you should check for one in your area!!!
I never knew that composting services existed! That's awesome, I will look into it.
I always go to Home Depot for all of my home projects
What a great idea to make a plan pot, amazing!
My hubby loves Home Depot for all his home projects!
I have a huge shopping list of items that I want and need to get at home depot.
i love those planters!
Beautiful planters!
Cooking homemade mac&cheese. Didn't have enough milk so used unflavored almond milk. Wish me luck....
my mom and i love going to home depot