Upcycling: Drying Rack, Water Bottle Watering Can, Plastic Baggie
Welcome back to our upcycling series, where we explore common household items you can easily reuse for your houseplants! It’s always nice to save a little money, and recycle things rather than throwing them away. For the first and second parts of this series click here and here — and feel free to drop your favorite upcycled plant accessory ideas in the comments!
Drying Rack
If you need a longer plant stand that is a bit more narrow, a drying rack will do the trick! They keep your plants elevated so you have room for more, or so you can bring them closer to a light source. Also, it’s extremely nice to have a plant stand that is long and narrower as opposed to trying to squeeze in wide circular stands. If you don’t have one of these around your house, there’s a good chance that you may find one at a thrift store for a very reasonable price.
Water Bottle Watering Can
This one might seem a bit unnecessary, and I used to agree with that until I had to use a watering can in a pinch. My large Dracaenas are the typical finicky Dracaena and my tap water causes their leaves to get big brown spots, so I have to water them using store bought or rain water. The problem is that my one watering can has a spout and is used to water with fish tank water, and the other broke, so I decided to try this out. I can tell you that it worked surprisingly well. All I did was get a small screwdriver (a nail would work as well) and used it and a hammer to tap holes in the lid of an empty bottle of water. Make sure to put the lid on something soft like a few paper towels when hammering the holes. Then you just fill it with water, put the lid on, and squeeze it a bit to get the water coming out like a shower spray.
Plastic Baggie
If you want a humidity chamber and don’t have anything else to use, a plastic lunch baggie does wonderfully! This one doesn’t really have many steps, as all you do is place the plant into the bag, and close it. I will always leave the top of the bag open just a tiny bit so that the plant will get a bit of fresh air, but not enough that it negates the purpose of a humidity chamber. The good news is that these can be used multiple times and can fit in tighter spaces since it will be the size of the pot.
If you have questions or want to check out more pictures of these three items and more, feel free to click here to head over to our Facebook group House Plant Hobbyist.