If you have plastic containers around your house (and who doesn’t), you can make a fun portable greenhouse to teach your kids about growing seeds. It a perfect show-and-tell project to share at school. Let them keep it at school to watch the plants start to sprout, something the class can all participate in and learn from.

How to make a milk gallon portable greenhouse:

1. Take an empty milk gallon or 2 liter bottle of soda and rinse it well with clean water and soap or a small amount of bleach.
2. Cut the container on the long axis from the lip to the other end so that it folds open like a brief case (make sure you cut above center as we will put soil in the bottom portion and want to make sure the soil doesn’t spill). Poke some small holes in the bottom part of the container for drainage.
3. Fill the larger bottom portion of the container with soil and moisten.
4. Plant the seeds at recommended intervals
5. Close the top part of the bottle and tape or rubber band shut. (Make sure air can still get in for ventilation)

Once you have done this, you have created your very own portable greenhouse. This portable greenhouse can be left outside without fear of heavy rains washing away the freshly planted seeds. Since the seeds are in an enclosed container, animals will not be able to get to them to eat or to dig up.

Take a look around your house and find other items that can be used; the only requirements are that it must conform to the basic principles of how a greenhouse works. Do you have a Tupperware container that you no longer use? This would be another great innovative portable greenhouse, not to mention it has a lid that can easily be removed to plant seeds and to water the sprouting plants.

An opaque storage container could also be used, providing more space than a milk gallon. There are so many household items that can be adapted to become a portable greenhouse. Use your imagination, have fun and get dirty, after all, that is what gardening is all about.

NOTE: While this does work if conditions are right, don’t expect to grow prized plants in these containers. For one, your plants will need fresh air. So make sure your container is not air tight. Secondly, clear plastic is not the ideal greenhouse covering. If you have a lot of sun your plants will get overheated and stressed. This is really best suited to just protect your seedlings during their early development. So if you are growing seedlings that are hard to transplant, plant those into seeling inserts or a biodegradable pot instead.