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1. Cut base and use for seedling tray or pet dish. Use top with lid for scooping dog biscuits, stock feeds, sand etc.

2. Bird Feeders

3. Hanging plant holders (though these really DO NOT hold up well to the Aussie heat! Even in the shade...)

4. Mini hot houses and wind breaks for small plants.

5. Dog deterrent - fill with water and place in garden beds...(though I have always really doubted the science in this... and have no reason to deter dogs, so have no idea if it is true...)

6. Slow release waterers - fill, with small hole in cap and invert into buried vertical pipe or open ended tin can buried in ground for watering.

7. Hand weights (Great for fly lifts... raise arms with full bottles in each hand from beside the body to horizontal and hold)

8. Bath toys (little kids, tipping and pouring is just so cool when you are a munchkin) When they get older, ask them to empty the bath with 2 litre bottles to recycle onto plants and SHOW them how much water they are using! Insert ear plugs and ignore whingeing. Some things need an experience to really be understood.

9. door stops - some funky folk have filled them with sand and turned them into little miss mousy with glasses and stuff...

10. Automatic animal waterers - fill, invert and secure against fence with wire, baling twine or get someone like Muddy to whip up some fancy doovalacky so that the top sits inside a full bowl of water and tops it up as the day goes on. Helps keep clean water available. Good for chooks, and house pets.

11. Ice blocks in freezer

12. Store/Freeze homemade cordials to ensure a years supply.

13) Cut top 6" off to use as a funnel

14) Cut base off to use as a cloche

15) Use bottom half as something to drain radiators into (and anything else too awkward to get a bucket under).

16) To store water/screenwash mixture in car

I will go for a very obvious one here

17) pour either water or another cold drink into it for use when out walking.

18) cut the top off and use for carrying frog spawn in to put in your pond so you can have loads of slug catching frogs.

19) cut the top off, put some stale beer in. Invert the top and hey presto a slug trap.

20. fill 2/3 with drink and freeze then take in your lunchbox so it acts as a freeze block.When it thaws out,drink it.

Fruitfly trap - cut small holes in base and place in an attractant eg dead fruit or vegemite.

Nev

21) Use to store dry foods i.e. pasta, flour, legumes etc.

The bulk foods place down the road was very impressed when I brought my own containers.

What is a cloche, Muddy?

A cloche is a little glass (more often plastic, these days) cover that you put over plants in the ground to give them a bit of extra protection and warmth.

Eg:

Except that the kind Stew pictured are highly expensive, even when just made out of plastic; that makes the 2l bottle an extremely economical idea. Bigger bottles can be even better but a 2l is enough to get a plant from weedy seedling to something with a half decent chance of survival!

Wulf

Ah, I see... thankyou!

I forgot his name, Yeoman? (gardening secrets that time forgot?) used bottles filled with water to surround tomato plants sort of like a greenhouse with the water buffering temperature change. Words escape me at the moment. Help, save me!

Here's my shot at growing tomatoes upside down:



... in 2l bottles.

Wulf

Build a greenhouse out of them... I LOVE this idea. You can also do a windbreak too..... http://www.sci-scotland.org.uk/greenhouse.html

Fill with water and put into your toilet systern to reduce the flush volume.


So long as you have a big systern!