bottle gardening, before (left), 'cold-cover' arrangement with cover to keep the plants warm on cool nights (middle), and 'water-catchment' arrangement with bottom on top to collect water in hot dry weather (right)

…is a simple little system I have going on the Roman rooftop garden (also known as Edible Estate #9: Rome, Italy) which involves collecting unwanted empty containers (from American Academy residents, who also happen to write their names on their bottles when they leave them in the communal kitchens, which adds a really cute personal kindergarten-like detail to the garden) – and then (a) they are cut in half (b) the cap is placed inside the bottom of the neck to keep the soil in place (c) the ‘top’ half is then filled with soil and planted with seeds (d) the ‘bottom’ is then either used as a cold-cover or base to catch water depending on the weather.