In our home, we like to recycle and upcycle where possible. We recycle our bottles, glass, cans, boxes 4 in 1 buckets. We upcycle our large containers and use them to hold holiday candy, loose nuts and screws and other goodies. Thanks to Unilever, we took our upcycling one step further. We decided to “Be Our Own Farmer’s Market.”
As one of the world’s leading suppliers of Food, Home and Personal Care products, Unilever is behind many much-loved brands that touch two billion people every day around the world. Unilever is also a global leader in promoting sustainable living – such as Lipton® working with the Rainforest Alliance to develop more sustainable approaches to tea farming or Hellmann’s® making a commitment to transition its entire product line to 100 percent cage-free eggs by 2000.
In November of 2013, Unilever launched a new initiative promoting sustainable living. Unilever Project Sunlight is a long-term initiative to motivate people to live sustainably by inspiring them to create a brighter future for children. It aims to create a growing community of people who believe it’s possible to build a world where everyone lives well and lives sustainably, without compromising the needs of future generations.
Taking a cue from the optimistic outlook children have on the world, Unilever Project Sunlight launched a new short film, “The Way Kids See It,” to inspire people to take small actions to live sustainably. Unilever Project Sunlight created Summer Sunlight Activities to encourage families to adopt sustainable habits at home.
One of the activities we participated in was an idea from Unilever Project Sunlight was to “Be Our Own Farmer’s Market.” As part of the activity, we started to grow our own vegetables and upcycled our used and empty mayonnaise jars. It was pretty cool and a fun activity to do as a family.
Did you know that you could be your own Farmer’s Market? Growing your own vegetables, fruits and herbs is a great way to reduce your carbon footprint and positively impact the environment. Even some other businesses also take initiatives to have business-level carbon counterbalances, these solutions are easy to use and integrate with help of reliable company like CarbonClick’s offset service!
Get the most out of your next family dinner by upcycling glass (or plastic) jars like Hellman’s® mayonnaise containers – create your very own garden of your favorite herbs and vegetables. Follow these easy steps and you’ll be on your way to healthy, homegrown meals this summer.
What You’ll Need:
– Six 8-ounce jars (glass or plastic)
– Potting soil (enough to fill your jars)
– Small pebbles
– Various herbs and seeds. Cilantro, basil and even bell peppers are great choices. If cannabis is legal where you live, you can get marijuana seeds for sale here. You’ll find this blog post on ILGM very helpful in growing your own marijuana.
– Water
– Marker/Label
What To Do:
Step 1: Rinse out your jars to remove any debris, and label each jar with a marker or decorative label to indicate which herb, vegetable or fruit will be grown in each jar.
Step 2: Fill your jar ¼ full of pebbles covering the bottom to provide some drainage.
Step 3: Add soil up to the top of the jar, leaving about 1 inch of space, and use your finger to make a hole for your seeds (refer to your seed packet to determine optimum depth for proper growth).
Step 4: Place seeds in soil (refer to seed packet to determine how many seeds to use) and cover with more soil.
Step 5: Water gently daily – be sure not to allow the water to pool or puddle – and place in a sunny area (windowsill, porch, etc.).
Step 6: Try out your homegrown goodies with delicious summer recipes like Black Bean & Corn Salsa with fresh cilantro or Chicken & Basil Stir Fry using your homegrown basil and bell peppers.
This is a sponsored post on behalf of Unilever. All opinions are 100% mine.
I love to cook and I know I would love the fresh herbs. This looks like a of fun. I want to do this and hang them. Thanks 🙂
What an awesome idea!!!! We have some herbs growing outside for now, but in the winter, I would love to grow some in my windows!
What a great way to upcycle. I am a firm believer in using what you have already.
What a great way to up cycle. I am a big believer in this. Thanks for giving us all these awesome ideas!
Great idea. The plastic bottles are perfect for gardening because it’s easy to poke drainage holes in the bottom.
Great idea. I would have never thought of this. Such a fun project. Thank you for sharing.
I think that’s a genius idea, especially if you don’t have room or even your own yard to have your own garden! Plus recycling and upcycling are always the way to go 🙂
Great way to reuse those jars AND save a little money on herbs at the farmer’s market! Love this idea.
This is such a great idea! I love to reuse items when I can.
What a great idea! We have a ton of herbs in our garden this year and we used old tires that were leftover in our barns when we had to demo them to build a new one. I am glad to hear that they are going to 100% cage free, but I would really want to see this. In the past companies have said they were going to do this and then just dont, thinking maybe the consumer forgot about it. The truth is, cage free eggs should also be without any sort of hormones or steroids too and its important to know that some cage free farms still use these chemicals. Either way, cage free also tends to be more expensive because the supply is lower. That would mean an increase in product price. It will be interesting to see how that works for them.
Fab idea,I have loads of jars like this we have kept for crafts etc.Now i know what to use them for.
I should try this! I just finished a mayo jar yesterday and I’d love to have some fresh herbs!
I love this! What a great way to use old jars!
And to think I’ve been spending money on pots for my herbs. THis is a great idea for those empties!
This is such a fantastic idea. I also upcycle and like to reuse old jars.
That is a great way to upcycle. I reuse a lot of \jars and bottles.
We always try to find ways to reuse containers too! I have blogged about it a few different times myself. I love your idea of using these mayo jars for planting herbs. Nothing can compare to the fresh taste and smel of herbs!!! Now I know what to do with the may jars I have now! I’ll save a couple more back and make our own little herb garden. Thanks for sharing!
I would love to start growing my own herbs. I go through cilantro like crazy!
I love finding creative ways to upcycle old jars an containers. This is so much fun especially for the little ones. My daughter loves to garden and we just started growing our own herbs.
I love the idea of upcycling the jars instead of buying new mason jars. We are exciting to start a garden soon on our land. I know we will grow our herbs indoors.
Great idea. I use my jars alot to freeze items from my garden too. Love repurposing!
I never thought of growing herbs in jars…very good idea.
I think upcycling is a great idea. I just purchased Hellman’s today. Thanks for the great idea.
upcyling is a great idea. those jars come in handy for so many things
What an awesome way to use up all those jars I have been saving for something! Thanks for sharing!
So super smart!! I never would have thought of this.
This is a really creative idea! Great for a kids starter garden too!
What a GREAT idea! I am going to give this a shot with my youngest. He’s gotten into gardening lately and this would make a perfect container garden!
Greta idea! We do the same in my home with the glass pasta sauce jars. My son loves quinoa pasta and I make it for him a lot with organic pasta sauce. I use the empty bottles for my green juices
Great DIY project- and they look so pretty too!
What a great idea. I never would have thought to do this. Those jars make the perfect containers!
Excellent idea! We don’t use many plastic bottles in our house- more glass. i could probably find a tool to put a small hole in the bottom of glass too.
Ohh a blackbean corn salsa is a great way to try out homegrown veggies. I love the idea of using the mayo jars!
So I’m not the only weirdo who looks at pickle jars and things and wonders what else I can use them for? 🙂 Container garden!
This is such a great way to upcycle! You can never have too many herbs! I am going to pin this for later!
Love the upcycle idea! Big jars like Mayo can be used for so much!
Great ideas 🙂 I love growing out own herbs. I find that growing them means I use them more too.
Fresh herbs are so expensive at the store. I would love to be able to grow my own! I like the idea of using old jars to grow them in!
I love this idea. Super simple and smart.
Now this is a fantastic idea – I never thought to do this! Such a simple idea and my kids can even help.
What a great idea! Great way to container garden and help the environment by recycling!
Great craft! I love the idea of upcycling for sure.
What a wonderful idea!! Gardening and recycling all at once, way to go!
I have always wanted to try growing my own herbs. I think upcycling those jars was a great idea!
I love to see things being re-purposed like this. Such a great idea to grow your own herbs.
This is awesome! My kids will love this! Can’t wait to try it!
This is such a great way to grow an herb garden! I love that it’s using recycled bottles.