Here is another great tutorial from our friend Lisa at Fresh Eggs Daily:

When you raise animals you naturally end up with lots of empty feed bags. It’s such a shame to just throw the Nutrena feed bags away because they are really pretty, as well as sturdy and water-resistant.  Why not sew some of yours into these cute patio garden planters? They are functional and light enough that you can move them around as needed into the sun or shade. The bag drains really well but also holds moisture. One of these planters with some started fruits, veggies or flowers would also make a great Mother’s Day gift or housewarming present!

 

Here’s what you’ll need:
One Nutrena feed bag,  rinsed off and dried
Cotton webbing (or fashion straps from the excess you cut off the feed bag)
Piece of window screen
Potting soil
Seeds or plant starts
Coordinating spool of thread and bobbin
Sewing machine fitted with a 90/14 medium-weight needle
Tape measure
Pinking shears
Sewing scissors
Straight Pins

Here’s what you do:
Cut about 8 inches from the bottom and four inches from the top of the bag.  Turn the bag inside out and sew a straight line across the bottom edge, leaving a 1/2″ seam allowance.  Then with the seam side facing up, fold each bottom end into a triangle to form the flat bottom and sew across each diagonally, about four inches from the point.

Cut across, removing the triangle tip of each end, leaving a 1/2″ seam allowance.

Fold the top of the bag over twice and pin some cotton webbing in place to make handles. The handles don’t need to be very long nor fancy since they will only be used to move the bag on occasion as needed.

After sewing a zigzag stitch along the lower seam, flip the handles up and sewed a straight stitch seam along the top edge to secure the handles in place.

Turn the bag right side out and cut some generous drainage holes in the bottom with scissors and then cut a piece of window screen to fit on the bottom to help hold the soil in the bag and put it in place.

I placed the bag up on two bricks on our back patio to elevate it off the ground and allow for better drainage and then filled it to within an inch of the top with some composted soil from our compost pile.  I planted some lettuce, kale and Swiss Chard seeds and then covered them with more soil and watered them well. 

A wide variety of mini crops can be planted in a bag container like this. I chose cold weather crops that are hardy enough to be planted early in the year but other vegetables with shallow root systems would work just fine as well.  Strawberries would make a beautiful bag of goodies also.

In a week or so, your bag should look like this and in a few more weeks be ready for picking! 

What could possibly be better than fresh greens right by your back door?  The bags can be emptied, rinsed off and reused, or used several times through the growing season for different harvests.

Tutorial courtesy of Lisa from Fresh Eggs Daily
www.fresh-eggs-daily.com