You could paint them white and put designs on them. That's what they used in the old days for pots. I'll never forget an old nursery man telling me that he bought a beautiful azealea in a coffee can. I posted earlier about how to make your own containers using newspaper and toilet paper and paper towel holders. Check it out! Also any plastic container with holes in it. Ice cream buckets make good little buckets around the yard for whatever. I use them almost daily. The lids make good saucers. The plastic go boxes with a clear lid work well for tiny greenhouses to start seeds or cuttings in. Cat litter buckets and any 5 gallon bucket works good as a bigger pot or two together for hydoponic growing. You'd have to google that one. There's a certain way to do that. You can also use two of them with soil in the top one and make a wicking system. I can tell you how to do that if you're interested. You can get 5 gallon buckets at the bakery dept in some stores for free. I see some stores are selling them now. Car washes have 55 gallon drums they get their soap in. Coffee grounds are great for the compost pile.

Yes, cutting out the lid is the way to go. I used one once, way back about 10 years ago. It worked great.... too great. The plant got so big and was so happy in it that I put off transplanting. When I finally did transplant it was not easy getting it out of the container. Its so deep and not very flexable, you end up cutting up the container to get the plant (s) out! So I don't use them for WSing anymore. But I use mine with a folded paper towel in the bottom for collecting my kitchen scraps for the compost pile. I have about 8 of them under the sink and once each is full it gets set out on the porch and when I have time I carry them to the pile. They are easy to wash/rinse out and use again. I have one under the sink in our bathroom to put all the bar soap "ends" into. One day I'll melt them down and make either liquid soap or more bar soap out of them. :) One I have stored heirloom tomato seeds in. A friend saved seeds spread on a paper towel and dried them. She wrote the name of each on the paper towel and when dry folded them up. I stick them in the coffee container and save them that way. When ready to plant, just snip the paper towel around each seed and plant.. paper and all. They sprout just fine.

I wouldn't use them. The metal in the cans will rust very quickly. Whether the rust will or will not create a problem with the soil or will affect seed germination, I don't know. What I do know though, is that hubby left an empty metal coffee can outside this past winter. He had been using it to hold some nails he was using outside in Nov. Anyways, but mid Dec. it had some snow in it and the top part of the can was all rusted and crumbling. By spring the metal in the can had started to crumble. I suggest you stick with the "tried and true" containers of recycled plastic containers, gallon jugs, etc. Fran Oh and welcome to the WS forum and don't mind all "us crazy people". We are addicted to WS but we love "newbies" and all the questions and helping out those that are new. We are the friendliest forum on GW. Fran

I found this while doing a search for "coffee can Santa boot". It is a pattern, but I don't know what the finished product looks like and this site doesn't show a picture. Here is a link that might be useful: coffee can santa boot pattern