Sure, gardening can be fun. But anyone who has attempted to maintain a garden knows one thing: it’s no simple task.
However, gardening doesn’t have to be hard. There are plenty of tips that can help make the gardener’s life a little easier. Below are a few DIY tricks to encourage plant-lovers to not give up.
Keep Plants Hydrated Without You Being There
Don’t think that maintaining your garden means you have to stay home all the time. There are several ways to keep your plants hydrated while you’re away. One cleaver way only requires two glasses of water and a roll of paper towels.
Take a roll of paper towels and unravel them, leaving them all attached. Weave the roll of paper towels through your garden and place both ends of the roll in the glasses of water. The water will be absorbed by the paper towels and will keep your soil moist. Just be sure that your pots or garden plots are higher than the water level in the glass, or this trick may not work so well.
Water Bottle Feeder
Before you put your plant in the ground, take a used water or soda bottle and use a tool to poke holes in the side of it. After you’ve made the holes, bury the bottle in the ground, right next to where your plant will be placed, with just the opening sticking out of the soil.
After your planted flowers or vegetables begin to grow, the roots will stretch out around the bottle, using it as its main water source, ensuring it always has the right amount of moisture and nutrients.
Pot-in-Pot Planting
If you don’t want to dig up old flowers every season to plant new ones, save time by using this simple pot-in-a-pot system. Dig a hole, add a plastic pot, and just use this each time you need to replace your blooms with new ones.
Foam instead of Soil
Oftentimes, larger flower pots don’t need to be filled the whole way with soil. A large pot full of dirt can be cumbersome and wastes most of the soil at the bottom. Instead, fill the bottom half of the pot with foam packing peanuts and lay a landscape fabric over the peanuts to stop the soil from creeping down through the voids. This trick may save you some money and your back!
Foam Peanuts
Oftentimes, larger flower pots don’t need to be filled the whole way with soil. A large pot full of dirt can be cumbersome and wastes most of the soil at the bottom. Instead, fill the bottom half of the pot with foam packing peanuts and lay a landscape fabric over the peanuts to stop the soil from creeping down through the voids. This trick may save you some money and your back!
Garden Bin
If you live in an apartment or small house, you probably do not have space for a garden. But if you have a storage bin, you can have yourself a mini garden. Poke holes in the bottom of a plastic storage bin for drainage, insert packing peanuts across the bottom half of the bin, and lay landscaping fabric over the peanuts. Then, add in the soil and plant your flowers or vegetables. Now your little space is complete with its own little garden.
DIY Garden Tools
So you bought a bunch of pots and soil and plants, but forgot the gardening tools? No worries. Some expert gardeners have found that they can use milk cartons to make most of the tools they need. Just cut out the desired tool shape (spade, rake, etc.) and use the milk handle as the tool’s handle. Check out the tools you can make here.
Grow Plants in Potatoes
Some plants can grow just by cutting them and placing them in something where they can grow roots. For example, instead of buying a new rose bush, you can cut older roses at the stem, and insert them into potatoes. Once the rose stems are inserted in the potatoes, you can plant the potatoes in the ground and sit back and wait for the roses to start blooming. More info is available here.
Give your Plant a Diaper
Get away with not watering for a few days by placing a diaper at the bottom of your pot or planter and covering it up with soil. This will allow your plant to retain moisture longer.
Cinder Block Flower Bed
Have some cinder blocks laying around? You can use cinder blocks and some old cardboard to create raised flower beds, making them as wide or narrow as you’d like. Just arrange the cinder blocks in a square or rectangular pattern and lay down cardboard inside, and there you have it: a garden. This can be an easier solution than getting wood cut to the right size and staked into the ground.
Use Vegetable Water
Save the water the next time you boil your vegetables. You may not want to drink this water, but this vegetable water is actually packed with nutrients that will be beneficial for your garden. Just make sure that you wait for the water to cool before you fertilize your plants.
Line the Bottom of Pots With Coffee Filters
Ever watered your plants and watched soil leak onto the ground? Save that soil by placing coffee filters at the bottom of your pots before you add your dirt and plants. This is an easy and inexpensive way to stop your soil from leaking while still allowing the water to drain.
Control Invasive Plants
Some plants have a tendency to take over a garden, but fear not. Cut around the bottom of a plastic planter and remove it then place the bottomless pot into the ground to contain your invasive plants. The rest of the plants in your garden will thank you.
Kill Weeds the Homemade Way
By combining a few household items, you can actually create a homemade weed killer. Combine one gallon of white vinegar, one cup of table salt, and one tablespoon of liquid dish soap, then put it in a leftover spray bottle, and voila, you have some weed killer. But, make sure to only use it on weeds, as it may kill other plants too.
Pinch Your Herbs
With certain herbs, pinching can encourage growth. Pinching the upper part of the stem, just below the leaves, can send a distress signal to the plant and it’ll actually react by growing bigger. This works best with herbs like basil and thyme.
