Yes, I bury a 2 liter bottle to up the neck, so you have 1" or so of the bottle out of the soil. Once the plants have grown it's nearly invisible. I prefer to put it at a 30 degree angle with the neck closest the edge of the pot and sloping toward the center. I poked holes in the bottom & around the middle section for seeping out A soldering iron melts it easily, but is smelly. I've also used an ice pick and opened it more with a scissor. Also works with a gallon milk jugs. I wish I would have used 2 of the bottles last year. My largest pots held 2 cucumbers with dianthus & pansies surrounding.

How about carrots? Will you be using 2 litre bottles, or some other size? If you're using gritty mix, the bottom of a half-gallon bottle will be as aerated as the bottom of a half-gallon pot, so no worries about useable container volume. I don't know if plants with strongly horizontal root systems will grow just as strongly vertically if they don't have any other option, but if they do then you can grow in a half-gallon bottle the same way as in a half-gallon pot. I use pop bottles for Haworthias mostly, and I've just put a couple of Lophs into a large bottle. The Haworthias would do fine in a regular pot large enough to be deep enough for their roots, but I don't have enough mix for that. The Lophs would probably explode with that much air and water available to the roots.

cool idea! we use plastic bottles over big seeds that we plant in the garden - to kind of give them a head start. Things like watermelon, pumpkin, squash, etc. But I love this idea for a cute little herb garden oustide my kitchen window. Thanks for sharing!

From what I understand, aluminum is endlessly recyclable. Plastic can only be recycled a few times, and I don't believe it can ever be recycled into food grade plastic again. Also, the plastic label cannot be recycled. Shipping-wise, plastic is lighter, but aluminum uses more available space. They are both round, but plastic bottles are wasting space at the top where they dome in, as well as the space taken up by the stackable plastic shipping pieces. I don't know which allows for more fuel efficiency: less empty space resulting in more liquid shipped per truckload, or lighter containers resulting in less fuel needed for propulsion. I can't think of many ways to reuse aluminum cans, and can only think of a few for the plastic bottles. Any uses for either will last a long time, which means you won't be doing much in the reuse section of the 3 R's.