Pinterest Try it Out Tuesday: DIY Watering Can

For the past few weeks I’ve seen a ton of pins on Pinterest about converting a milk jug into a watering can. I was a bit skeptical. While I know it could be a good repurposing of a normal throwaway item, I was skeptical at how neat it would be. I was worried that without a special spout, it would drip water everywhere. Since I’ve decided that this summer I’m going to repurpose items for my garden instead of buying new ones, I thought I would give this a shot for our Pinterest Try it Out Tuesday.

Materials:

• empty milk jug
• scissors (for large holes/stronger water flow) or needle (small holes/softer water flow)

Instructions:

1. Wash out your milk jug thoroughly. Make sure to rinse soap out of it completely–soap film can coat leaves and block photosenthesis.
2. If using a needle, warm the tip in a candle to help it poke through the plastic. If using scissors, skip this step.
3. Remove the bottle cap and begin to randomly poke holes in it, spacing them a centimeter or two apart. I recommend a minimum of six holes. Be careful–don’t poke your finger while doing this!
4. Fill the jug with water and replace the cap. Done!

So here’s my results: it worked, sorta. Because I didn’t stop and read all of the instructions (doh!) I didn’t use the right tool to poke holes in milk cap. (I’m not sure I own sewing needles anyway.) The holes are large and not perfect circles, because I used a pair of scissors to poke the holes in the cap. Still, it worked! The streams pour neatly on top, and dribble a bit on the bottom, but I think this is more a result of my design than the overall success of the water jug. It was a nice, focused stream, not too fast or too heavy. Just right for watering indoor and container plants. As you can see in the photos, I used it on my herb container garden, which needs a gentler spray of water. Anything too hard and it will weigh down and flatten the tender herbs. This was perfect. It wasn’t so light that it left me standing there forever, waiting for enough water to come out. It was a good strength of water. Another benefit is that it holds a good amount of water without being awkward or heavy. I don’t have to refill it often like you do with traditional, smaller watering cans. And it doesn’t drip water all over my floors either!

All in all I’d rate this one a success! Even with my crude scissor holes, the overall project worked well. I will save the cap from our next jug of milk and try to find a needle to poke holes in it. I would be comfortable giving this to my eight year old to help water plants with, without worrying about water splashing all over the place or her spilling it. Because of the lid I can breathe a little easier when she’s watering her plants around my laminate floors!