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You are here: Home / Gardening / How to Make a Mini-Greenhouse

How to Make a Mini-Greenhouse

February 9, 2012 by Alea Milham 24 Comments

This post may contain affiliate links. Read our disclosure policy here.
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How to make a mini-greenhouse from recycled materials. A quick and easy tutorial for making a DIY Mini-Greenhouse for starting seedlings.

I love starting my seedlings inside in the spring. I always start my coo-weather crops in late February even though the plants cannot be put outside until early May. I start my warm weather crops in late March, but they can’t be planted outside in my region until after Father’s Day. Since my seedlings will be growing inside for a couple months they have an opportunity to become quite established before I harden them off and transplant them to my garden. For that reason, I often use yogurt cups, so there is plenty of room for the roots to develop.

How to Make a Mini-Greenhouse

Items needed for this project:
repurposing salad and yogurt containers to make a mini-greenhouse
10 oz. empty salad container, washed by hand (these are often made of cornstarch and will melt in the dishwasher).

6 empty yogurt cups per salad container, washed (these are rugged enough to be put in the dishwasher when you have extra room).

hammer and 1 nail

Directions:

How to make a mini-greenhouse from recycled materials

With the hammer and nail, make two holes in the bottom of each yogurt cup. Do not worry if you create a crack in the process; it will still work.

How to make a shovel from an old milk jug
Scoop dirt into the yogurt cups. If you can’t find a shovel, you can create a scoop from a milk jug.
How to make a mini-greenhouse from recycled materials
Add seeds, water, and put the lids on until the seedlings have emerged:
How to Start Seeds Indoors Using Recycled Materials
Then care for the seedlings according to the package directions.

I did not put the lettuce seeds in yogurt cups. I put dirt directly into the salad container and then sowed the seeds directly in the dirt. The lettuces will be put out earlier than the other plants, so they don’t need as much room for root development.

Have you found ways to repurpose and reuse items in your garden?

How to Make a  Mini-Greenhouse from recycled materials. Reuse old yogurt containers and salad containers to make mini-greenhouses to start seedlings indoors.

More Vegetable Gardening Tips:

How to Start Square Foot Gardening

Plot Gardening for Beginners

Vegetable Container Gardening

How to Start Seeds in Egg Shells

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About Alea Milham

Alea Milham is the owner of Premeditated Leftovers and the author of Prep-Ahead Meals from Scatch. She shares her tips for saving money and time while reducing waste in her home. Her favorite hobby, gardening, is a frugal source of organic produce for her recipes. She believes it is possible to live fully and eat well while spending less.

Comments

  1. Elizabeth says

    March 25, 2020 at 10:04 am

    Do you need to poke ventilation or air holes in the salad container? Or just the yogurt cups? Are the holes in yogurt cups necessary?

    Reply
  2. BJ Jackson says

    November 9, 2017 at 1:34 pm

    I discovered that used K-cups are the perfect size for the little Netted Coir pellets. Just clean them out and rinse out. Pop in a pellet that has been soaked and plant your seeds.

    Reply
    • Alea Milham says

      November 10, 2017 at 5:52 pm

      Great idea! Thanks for sharing it with us.

      Reply
  3. June says

    February 16, 2016 at 5:43 pm

    Your ideas are excellent. I would recommend some extra lighting as the seedlings are are somewhat spindly. Enough light will mean stronger more resilient plants.

    Reply
  4. Anita Anderson says

    May 24, 2015 at 4:45 am

    After 6 years of trial-and-error container gardening, my container garden has finally reached the point where it supplies 80% of my daily vegetable needs. I learned how to make my own compost, and reuse a large amount of any plastic container or bottle I initially used.
    I now have a container kitchen herb garden, a container medicinal herb garden (for teas, DIY cosmetics, oils and pultices), and a vegetable garden with all the veggies I love to eat.
    I also LOVE all the other websites of fellow gardeners – incl. yours – because I always get new ideas from them.
    I think that any avid gardener will agree: gardening is contagious, a lot of work, but also a lot of fun–in short: a labor of love.

    Reply
  5. fedz says

    April 20, 2015 at 10:25 pm

    simply love the idea

    Reply
  6. jennifer says

    February 28, 2013 at 8:16 am

    LOVE THIS IDEA!!!!! thanks~!

    Reply
  7. Alison says

    March 5, 2012 at 8:30 pm

    I wish that I saved some of those containers! NUTS!!!! I have the dirt and seeds but no containers. I think that I need to start searching for containers quick.

    Reply
  8. Julia @ juliecache says

    February 15, 2012 at 9:49 am

    Thanks for linking up! We also use small containers from the bakery. Happy gardening!

    Reply
  9. Maggie says

    February 11, 2012 at 12:33 pm

    Another avid gardener here, I do seed starting under lights for some things (eggplant) but more and more do the winter sowing in milk jugs. I’m looking at heading out to the garage when I log off to get the indoor set up going. You should have a great garden!

    Reply
  10. Anne @ Quick and Easy Cheap and Healthy says

    February 10, 2012 at 1:57 pm

    Oh my goodness, thank you so much for this! I am determined to be successful in my gardening this year, and this will be such a huge help.

    Reply
  11. April @ The 21st Century Housewife says

    February 10, 2012 at 12:17 pm

    This is such a terrific idea – and a great way to get started on your garden. It’s nice to find a way to repurpose these containers, as there is nowhere I can recycle them locally – and it’s perfect timing to get started on my garden. Thank you for sharing this!

    Reply
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Welcome. I'm Alea!

On Premeditated Leftovers I share simple recipes made with whole foods, practical shopping tips, time saving techniques, and meal planning strategies. I also share tips for minimizing food waste, so more of the food that is purchased ends up on the table.

While volunteering as a budget counselor, I realized that food is the element of most people’s budgets where they have the greatest control. I set out to develop low-cost recipes from scratch to prove it’s possible to create delicious meals on a limited budget. Eating well while spending less is about more than just creating recipes using inexpensive ingredients; it’s about creatively combining ingredients so you don’t feel deprived and are inspired to stick to your budget.

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