Beer Bottle Gardens

It’s gardening season, and while there’s nothing better than a bottle of beer after an afternoon of pulling weeds and watering plants, one woman wants to put gardens in beer bottles.

Paige Mattson is the creator of Sprout Bottle, a handcrafted, reclaimed beer bottle garden kit that she says she invented because of a growing interest in repurposing items that become garbage far too often.

“The Sprout Bottle idea came from my concern with the amount of glass that doesn’t get recycled, plus my love for beer,” Mattson says. “Most people think their bottles are recycled when they are put in a recycling bin, when in actuality only 60–70 percent of what’s thrown in your recycling bin is recycled. And that’s not accounting for the bottles that aren’t recycled in the first place.”

She sources craft brewery bottles from local recycling centers, cutting and fire polishing them so there are no sharp edges. According to Mattson, who works from her home in Virginia, macro beer bottles are inferior due to their thinner glass.

Encased in its own recycled cardboard four-pack carrier, each Sprout Bottle garden includes a unique blend of organic soil, fertilizer and seeds plus specially labeled containers to differentiate the seeds.

Two different Sprout Bottle kits let green thumbs grow wild: there’s a flower garden featuring Imperial Flax, Sweet Resina, Trippel Lavender and Bright Marigold. Or cooks can enjoy the herb garden kit, which includes Brewhouse Basil, Full-Bodied Rosemary, Hop-In Oregano and Tapped Out Sage.

In addition to removing a lot of glass from the waste stream, Sprout Bottle has partnered with 1% for the Planet. One percent of all sales go to nonprofit organizations that support the environment. ■