How to Make an Easy DIY Watering Can for Your Garden

Are you looking for a fun and easy way to make your own DIY watering can? This tutorial is simple to follow and can help you make your own watering jugs repurposing containers you already have at home.

I was working in my garden today when I realized I could not for the life of me find my watering can. And, so, while I’m still quite befuddled as to how a watering can disappears by magic, the good news is now I have a fun easy DIY to make your own watering jugs and cans!

The best part? These are super easy to make and use – in many ways I actually like my DIY garden watering jug more than the one that is missing!

How to Make Your Own DIY Watering Can

The idea to make this simple and easy to use watering can came as I was walking into the house, lamenting to my husband that the watering can vanished.

Why not just use that gatorade bottle the kids left on the kitchen table? Poke some holes in the lid. Why, yes, dear, that is a wonderful idea! So, I decided to try making it and share how I made it here – and it really does work quite nicely!

Here’s What You’ll Need:

A large gallon sized jug: I used an empty Gatorade jug, which has a nice handle on the top. You could also use a milk jug. I think a gallon is a nice size – not too big or heavy, but enough that you don’t have to continually keep filling it back up. Make sure your jug has a lid! That is another benefit of the gatorade jug is that it has a very nice wide mouth lid, almost exactly the same size as my old missing-in-action watering can.

An Awl: An awl is a tool that is specifically meant for poking holes into something, hence why I call it more commonly by what it actually is: a pokey-stabby-tool.  They can be tough to find in a lot of hardware stores for some reason. You can often find them very cheap as a used hand tool at flea markets, or you can order one online. I would recommend ordering online because it seriously was 3 weeks of searching for one before I finally found this one at a store about 60 miles away from our house. It is the Dasco Pro 431 Scratch Awl and it works so great for a number of things! I use it for bookbinding, crafts, building stuff when you need to start the screws into the wood. Seriously, it’s a good investment to make!

Once you have these two things, you are ready to start making your very own DIY gardening jug!

I filled the jug with water before I started, of course you probably do not have to. The weight of the water though made it nice and sturdy so it was not sliding around.

The next step was to take the awl and begin poking holes into the top of the lid.

Here is a picture of the awl in action. It goes through very easily – very little pressure or force was needed. Once the awl was inserted into the lid, I twisted it so that the holes would be nice and big. You of course can make your holes as big or as small as you desire.

The Final DIY Watering Can

And here below is a picture with all of the holes poked into the lid of the jug. You can see it is very random how I spaced them all apart. Sort of reminds me of a salt shaker!

How to Use the Watering Can:

The watering can is super easy to use, and one of the biggest benefits I noticed right away is it was very easy for me to fill from my kitchen sink. We haven’t yet turned on our outside water faucets yet. Being able to fill up the watering can in the sink inside is a really nice perk, because I don’t have to worry about the water overflowing or spilling.

Now, because the watering can does not have a spout, I found the best way to use it is to shake it. The water really comes out very nicely, the perfect flow where it is not too much that it might drown the plants, but not so slow that I’m standing there forever.

All in all, it took me about 5 minutes to make this easy shaker watering jug, and I seriously like it so much I may make a few more so the kids can help with the garden watering also!

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I hope you find this little easy DIY tutorial helpful, and that it inspires you to do what you can with what you have. You do not have to buy an expensive watering can, or even a garden hose or have outside hookups for water. Starting out with simple creative repurposing is a great way to get started in your garden on a budget!

Have any questions on how to make this DIY watering can? Have any other ideas for different types of containers you might be able to use to make your own watering jugs? Comments are always welcomed below!