Recycling Bedding Pots

My last post showed the results of the blizzard we had on February 1.  It was a huge snow storm for Oklahoma and I was off work three days!  Then this week, we had a repeat.  Another snow storm dumped snow on us.  This storm did not have as much wind as the first one, but it brought really frigid temperatures that broke records for the coldest temperatures ever recorded in Oklahoma.  And, I was off work yet another day.

Tom and I stayed inside for the most part and made ourselves useful by washing some of the plastic pots that we saved from last year's bedding plants.  Every year we set out a couple of hundred tomato, pepper, basil and other herb plants.  We save the plastic pots that these are grown in and recycle those that are salvadgeable.  This keeps them out of the landfill and also saves us quite a bit of money to boot.

Here is my pot-washing setup:

I have the perfect place to do this in a small bathroom just off our laundry room that has a shower.   I fill a large plastic tub with warm water and add dishwashing detergent along with a small amount of bleach.  I use a long handled brush to scrub the pots.  Then I set them on the bottom of the shower and rinse them with clean water using one of those shower heads attached to a hose, as you can see.  Tom usually stacks them for me on towels that he spreads out on the floor and vanity.  It is a tiny bathroom, so there really is not much room.  And, after 45 minutes or so, we have every available inch of space covered!

It is a good way to make use of time when we cannot go outside.  So, pardon me while I go wash some more pots!