'Grow your own' with Nancy Birtwhistle's genius idea for making free plant pots for spring seedlings

Say it quietly to avoid scaring it away, but with sunnier spells and longer days, it seems we’ve made it out of winter and spring is ready to bloom. And if you’re already springing into action (pun intended) with all the crucial gardening tasks to undertake this month, you might want to start thinking about germinating seeds and rooting cuttings.

Whether you’re just trying to grow colourful plants or you’re hoping to eat organic, home-grown tomatoes, peppers, chillies and more this year, a propagator is essential for getting young plants growing.

Acting as a mini greenhouse, propagators aren’t necessarily always expensive, but you might not have enough space, or the thought of driving to a B&Q just doesn’t seem worth it.

Well, thanks to former Bake Off champ Nancy Birtwhistle, you can now make as many propagators as you need from upcycled materials - and they are the kind of things that are very easy to come by, wherever you live.

How to make free plant pots and propagators: Nancy's 'genius' idea

Nancy’s 'genius' idea – as hailed by fans in her comments – simply requires cardboard tubes (such as the ones you can keep from toilet paper or kitchen towel rolls), plastic trays from the supermarket, and empty yoghurt pots.

If you’re popping to the supermarket anytime soon - or even a local shop - ask about the plastic trays that hold pots like yoghurt or creams. They’ll likely just be thrown out, so you could easily stock up on a fair few.

A bonus of this affordable, upcycled approach is that you can experiment and try to involve your children or grandchildren in the fun of growing something from scratch.

Explaining how to use them, Nancy starts with the cardboard tubes. You’ll cut them into three, and on one end, make four small cuts. Open up the tube once cut and you’ll see you’ve made four flaps. Fold those flaps back and make sure the fourth one is tucked under to be able to secure that base.

What you’ve just made is a homemade, biodegradable, compostable plant pot. From something we all use regularly and throw away without a second thought.

Once you’ve assembled your free plant pots, you can pop them in one of your upcycled trays, sow your seeds and then place another tray on top. Read our expert propagation tips to find out more.

Pop that on your windowsill or somewhere where the sun can warm it up and you’ve built yourself a mini greenhouse.

If there’s any doubt as to the efficacy of this tip, fans in Nancy’s comments were quick to share their own successes.

One wrote, “These worked a treat for my sweet pea seeds last year. Some of the plastic cartons for grapes come with a lid too, used loads of these last year”.

Another echoed this, “I use empty loo rolls for sweet pea & broad bean seeds. They seem to biodegrade happily once I plant them out.”