You can't help but notice that growing flowers, herbs, trees, grass, vegetables is exceptionally plastic-intensive. Mountains of every size plastic pot imaginable inside every Walmart, Hardware Store and Garden Centre in North America. Towers of seed trays and small "in-home" greenhouse kits. Skyscrapers of potting soil, sheep manure, peat moss, triple-mix have appeared outside every Zehr's, Canadian Tire, and Nursery, each one is a high quality plastic bag one rip away from the landfill. Here's an insider secret: You don't need any of those new, often expensive items to have a successful growing season. You need a container + seeds + soil. We'll talk about the last two next time. For today, let's focus on the containers. You can start seeds in just about any plastic or paper "vessel" that would otherwise go into the garbage (recycling!): a cut-open pop bottle, an empty peanut-butter jar, egg cartons, Tim Horton's cups, even coffee bean bags, which are strong, durable and often lined with a waxy water-resistant paper.