Grow Bottle Project

I saw this Grow Bottle on Amazon for $34.99

Description says:  Organic Basil (Ocimum basilicum ‘Dwarf Greek’) King of the herbs, basil is a favorite among many cooks for its incredible flavor. The sweet tasting miniature leaves are ready for use straight off the plant. No chopping or mincing required. It will take 7-10 days for your seeds to germinate. You should be able to start using the leaves in about 6 weeks. Includes: organic basil seed, grow bottle, clay grow pebbles, vermiculite, wool felt wick, cork coaster, directions. Bottle 8″ high x 2.75″ diameter.

I did a quick search on the Internet to see exactly what this “grow bottle” thing was.  It’s a bottle cut in half, a piece of felt and some clay pebbles.  This is basically a hydroponic gardening set up.  hmmmm

Let me see now.  I have a whole shelf of bottles I got from my nieces, who apparently claim they don’t drink but they have some helluva parties where “everyone else” drinks.  Yeah..ummm hmmm.. I saw these bottles and started packing them up.  They asked why I would assume they didn’t want to keep them.  I was like for what?  Trophies?  Paleeze.  You need to get rid of these bottles before people think you are lushes.  So I packed them up and took them home.  Basically I strong armed them into giving them to me.  LOL. Such an advantage of being an auntie.

SO I have about 12 bottles…check

I also want some red bottles and green bottles, and those frosted white bottles etc.  I asked a friend who is a bouncer in a club to check and see if he can get some of their disposed of bottles for me…if they aren’t counted but then as I was salivating thinking off all the bottles I was going to get from him…he quit.  DANG. That felt like a cruel twist of fate.

I have this bird nest topsy turvey  outside that is full of dirt that I need to take down…Remember that?

I went to take the topsy turvy down and ewwl there was a HUGE wasp nest in there.  Luckily I had spray on hand and killed all the wasps.  I went and brought another bag of soil.  That topsy turvy thing, the plants I put in it AND the soil to fill it was all a waste of money!!

Soil (vs clay pebbles)…check

Next I needed to know how to cut a bottle so I watched a youtube video (you can learn anything on youtube).  Here are the directions to cleanly cut a bottle.

Instructions….check

If you have labels on the bottle you can peel them off as much as possible and use Goof-Off to get the residue off.  Okay I don’t know that for a fact, I am just repeating information I heard in the commercial and noted to myself to get some Goof-Off.  It has to work cause the commercial says it does, just spray on and wipe off, it’s just that easy.  LOL we know they are not allowed to post lies on the Internet right?  Where did I hear that?  Why the Internet of course… and the french model commercial on TV.

goof off…check

Wicks…You can use anything from felt, to towels cut up, to cotton twine braided…anything as long as it reaches from the top of the bottle to the bottom section and it will absorb water!  Joann’s had felt squares on sale for 25 cents.  2 sheets should do it.

wicks…check

I found some culinary herbal seeds in Lowes that cost an arm and a leg…Italian Parsley, Thyme, Sweet Basil, Oregano, Sweet Marjoram, Culinary Sage.  Don’t those spices just make you want to cook some spaghetti and sausages and bake a savory chicken?

I really would also like some mint tea…

seeds…check

Oh yeah and I need something to cut the bottles don’t I?

I purchased the Generation Green (g2) Bottle Cutter as shown in the video.

Bottle cutter…check

Now I have all the supplies, I just have to do it

I was all prepared waiting for a break in the renovations to work on this when I made the mistake of seeing someone talk about how they could not cut the bottle straight for nothing and I really don’t want to mess up those pretty blue bottles.  I am putting this project off until spring.  I have to get the nerve up to cut the bottles.  If all else fails I will plant the seeds in something else and use the bottles on a bottle tree.