Hazel SolenderGardening can be a brilliantly immersive activity but for a beginner, it can be tricky. The few times that I tried to garden, I ended up quitting out of frustration. Sometimes, it can seem extremely hard to follow all the rules that come with keeping plants alive. Luckily, people discover new ways to make this process simpler everyday while saving you money! Here are 15 clever and unusual gardening tips that will make you the proud owner of a gorgeous green space – irrespective of budget, space and time constraints!
Put coffee filters in your potted plants
Sounds pretty weird, doesn’t it! By putting the filters in the bottom of a plant, it helps make the transportation process easier. Once the plant outgrows its pot, it will need to be moved to something new, dirt and all. The filter keeps the entire plant in one piece, avoiding a huge mess to clean up later.
Photo: paigudetuzi via Pixabay
Grow a rose bush in a potato
Not as hard as you think! You can take the trimmings from other roses that you have cut, and stick them into potatoes. Yes, you read that right! Securing the trimming in the potato makes it easier to plant it. Simply dig a small hole in the dirt, stick the potato in the hole, and cover it back up. This avoids the need to buy a rose plant and follow all the rules that come with it.
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Eggspecting Quality soil? No problem!
Instead of buying mineral rich soil that is definitely overpriced, you can just as easily make your own. You can take the eggshells from the eggs that you have used and put them in the blender. From there you blend them into a powder, which you can then take and sprinkle into your soil. From that you just created soil filled with calcium!
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Another item to put in your potted plant: diapers
Yet another weird tip that actually works! Putting diapers in your plant helps to soak up the excess moisture that your plant creates. It leads to healthier plant that can grow at a faster pace. You will be less likely to over-water your plant if you follow this gardening hack. And an added bonus: it keeps the plant smelling fresh!
Photo: Ezio Longo via Flickr
Start composting with your kitchen leftovers
Most people enjoy helping the environment with as little effort as possible. Composting is one way to do this. All you need to do is take the food that you are no longer going to eat, stick it into leftover takeout bags, and bury them in your garden near the plants. This makes your plants healthier, relieves you of more waste, and helps the environment.
Photo: Vijay Krishna via Flickr
Want your plants to be displayed in style? Use a purse
Pots keep plants in a confined space to grow. While they are useful and do what is needed, they are not the most aesthetically pleasing. A fun way to fix this dilemma is to use an old purse that you do not need anymore! If you were planning on just throwing it out, think again. This hack keeps you from getting rid of a valuable object while making your plant look even cooler.
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Space out your plants evenly by using wine corks
Decorating the outside of your house with flowers is something that we all love to do. But when it comes to planting our own flowers, it can be hard to line them up evenly. There are ways to avoid this challenge! Wine corks are the perfect size to help with spacing. You can screw several of them onto a board, spacing them out however it pleases you. After that, all you need to do is push them into the ground, creating perfect holes with the perfect spacing.
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Want to create your own greenhouse? Use plastic bins!
This task can seem daunting at first. A greenhouse is a large structure that you would need to actually create before you even begin the planting. It is overwhelming and a lot of work. A way to start smaller and leave more room for growth before giving up is to create a mini greenhouse. This can be done by taking old plastic storage bins and filling them with potted plants. You now have the start to a wonderful greenhouse without all the stress!
Photo: Joi Ito via Wikimedia Commons
Create your own watering can
A lot of watering cans do not have the water pressure that gardeners desire. They either release too little water, or too much. It can get frustrating when you keep paying for a watering can that does not even do the trick. To avoid this, you can create your own! All you need to do is take an empty gallon bottle and poke holes in the cap. Because it is your creation, you can choose how many holes you need. After this, you fill the bottle with water, screw on the cap, and you have your very own watering can.
Photo: jill111 via Pixabay
Too many weeds? Vinegar to the rescue
Gardening cannot be done without finding weeds along the way. It can be a challenge to pull them out, because that can run the risk of messing up your plants. However, you want to keep your garden looking as beautiful as possible. An easy fix to the weed problem is to pour vinegar on them. Vinegar is a great solution to the problem because it kills the weeds without destroying the environment. An eco-friendly weed killer? Sounds pretty good to me!
Photo by Urban Wired via Flickr
Water your plants over time with a wine bottle
Sounds strange, but once again, this is a hack that actually works. All you do is fill the empty bottle with water, poke holes in the cap and place it upside down into the potted plant. This allows the water to slowly make its way into the soil to keep the plant hydrated. If you are going away for the weekend and have no one to water the plants, this wine bottle solution is the way to go.
Photo: Jennifer C. via Flickr
Grow more food from your kitchen waste
While using kitchen waste as compost is an earlier hack on this list, there are other ways to use your waste as well. Many foods include seeds or other parts of them that can be used to grow even more. Instead of throwing them out and buying more at the supermarket, grow them yourself! Take the parts that regrow the food, put them into your soil, and soon you will see it grow. You create your own food while saving the Earth from more waste.
Photo: Jean-noël Lafargue via Wikimedia Commons
Want to keep animals away from your garden?
Instead of buying all the gardening tools to scare away animals, create your own tool. All you need to do is plant plastic forks into your soil with the tips pointed out of the ground. This keeps the animals away from your plants. They will see the forks, get scared, and turn away. Avoid the expensive and potentially unhelpful methods with this simple gardening trick without harming the animals.
Photo: Laura Wolf via Flickr
Keep fungus away from your garden with cinnamon
Often times, gardeners like to move plants from one place to another. If you are replanting something, you do not want fungus to start growing in place of the actual plant. It will ruin your garden, and will be a frustrating process. To avoid it altogether, use cinnamon! Before you plant what you want to, dip the root into cinnamon. It will help keep fungus from invading your garden, and keep the plants healthier.
Photo: Lindsay Eyink via Flickr
Planting azaleas? Use cola to help them grow
Gardeners want their plants to come out as strong as they can be. There are many weird hacks that do this. One of them is the use of cola. All you need to do is pour four ounces of it into your soil, and your azaleas will start growing even more efficiently! You do not even need the more expensive versions of this soda – any form of it works. A strange tip, but it does the trick.
Photo: Frannye85 via Pixabay
These are just fifteen ways to help you as a gardener. Once you get started, you may find even more hacks that work for you. Gardening is a fun, relaxing experience that can lead to amazing results.
Also read:
Everything You Need to Know About Herb Gardening to Inspire Green Envy
DIY: What are Air Plants and How to Grow Your Own
Check out our Green Living section for more awesome gardening tips!
