Gardening can be a relaxing and productive hobby to have. However, it is also a time-consuming process, and it requires a significant monetary investment. In that case, using some tips and tricks can make some processes less tedious and possibly more enjoyable. Also, you’ll be able to save some time and devote it to another hobby of your choosing. So, if you love this activity as much as most other gardeners, here are some clever gardening hacks that you use to make your experience more enjoyable.
Clever Gardening Hacks
1. Create Your Own Seed Tape
It can be hard on your back, and not to mention time-consuming, to plant seeds one at a time. So, you can create your own seed tape to speed up the seed-planting process. Moreover, another advantage of this hack is that you can determine the spacing as you make the seed tape.
Thus, you can use this tape by digging a narrow trench at the correct depth. Next, roll out your seed tape, cover it in, and water it.
2. Use Container Gardening to Save Space
One of the most useful clever gardening hacks for users with limited space is to opt for container gardening. For example, you could grow potatoes in a container even with only a bit of outdoor space.
3. Use Peppermint Oil to Deter Pests
Peppermint essential oil is a fantastic oil deterrent for spiders and ants. In addition to that, it can keep away caterpillars, beetles, aphids, and mice. So, add about 15 drops of peppermint oil to a spray bottle—a small glass one will work best. Next, fill the rest of the bottle with water to dilute it.
Shake the bottle and spritz the peppermint essential oil around the outside of your plant pots and at your garden’s perimeter. Moreover, spray the oil often and make sure to shake the bottle each time so that the dilution is consistent.
This option can be much better than investing in hard insecticides.
4. Use Eggshells to Fertilize Your Soil
Every time you eat eggs for breakfast, keep the eggshells. After that, crush them and sprinkle them in the seed holes before planning. Also, you could sprinkle them around your existing plants’ base. So, the primary purpose of this exercise is that it can act as fertilizer.
Eggshells contain high amounts of calcium and other necessary minerals for plant growth. In addition to that, eggshells could help keep away snails, slugs, or stray cats from your flowers and vegetables if you scatter them around the vegetation.
5. Use a Milk Jug as Your Watering Can
One of the simplest clever gardening hacks is to use your empty milk jug as your watering can. So, all you have to do is wash out all remnants of milk from the jug. Next, poke many small holes in the jug’s cap with a craft knife.
After that, you can fill the jug with water, place the cap back on, and water your plants with ease. You’ll save money on purchasing a watering can. Also, you can always replace the jug the next time you buy milk.
6. Use a Hand Scrub After Gardening
Most people who garden for the love of the activity will confirm that they enjoy getting their hands dirty while taking care of their plants. However, the result of that is that cleaning your hands can become a challenge. In that case, you can use a high-quality, exfoliating hand scrub.
This way, you can keep your skin healthy, clean, and moisturized, and you won’t have dirt stuck under your fingernails. Thus, using hand scrub is especially useful for gardeners who have flowering bends and tend to them often.
7. Protect Your Plants with a Milk Jug
To protect plants from frost, use a milk jug as a mini greenhouse by cutting the bottom off. Next, place the jug over tender and small plants during the initial days of the growing season.
This gardening hack also helps keep pests off your plants. Bonus!
8. Create a Multi-Purpose Tool Holder
You can save time and energy on keeping your tools sharp by creating your very own multi-purpose tool holder. So, you won’t have to sharpen or clean your tools manually. Instead, the tool holder will handle that for you.
For this project, you’ll need sand, some oil, and a pot. However, considering the process requires a number of steps, here’s a video that can quickly explain what to do.
9. Water Your Plants Twice
You can keep your plants healthy by watering them twice instead of once. So, after boiling or steaming vegetables, eggs, pasta, etc., you can save that water and use it. That said, make sure that the water’s temperature reaches room temperature before you put it onto your plants. You can burn your plants if you don’t check beforehand.
10. Start Your Seeds in Cardboard Tubes
You can use cardboard tubes from empty toilet paper rolls for this process. This way, you can reuse and recycle goods and prevent wastage overall. So, what you must do is get the cardboard tubes wet thoroughly and then place them in the ground when you can transplant your sprouts to the garden.
Thus, the purpose of soaking the cardboard is to allow it to break down in the ground and prevent any hindrance to your plants’ growth.
11. Place Your Sponges in Your Plants’ Pots
Another quick and simple one of the clever gardening hacks mentioned in this article is placing sponges in your plants’ pots. One of the most common reasons for negatively affecting plant health is overwatering and underwatering them. Therefore, the presence of sponges can solve these problems.
So, the sponges absorb extra water during overwatering. In that case, the sponges can prevent root rot by managing airflow. On the other hand, the sponges can hydrate the plants in the case of under watering. Thus, it will act as a water reserve. This simple solution can have lasting benefits and is a must when considering container gardening.
12. Organize Your Seeds
Keeping your things organized can help in all areas of life, and that is also the case with gardening. So, one of the easiest clever gardening hacks is to organize your seeds by using a photo album’s sleeves.
The great thing about using a photo album is that it’s affordable, easily available, and most importantly, keeps the packets of seeds enclosed, avoiding spills.
You can also place labels on the sleeves so that you can keep track of your seeds.
13. Use a Produce Wash to Clean Your Harvest
When the time comes for harvesting, you should clean it with a produce wash before you try and consume it. If you don’t want to spend money on a produce wash, you can create one yourself. So, all you’ll need are two essential ingredients: lemon essential oil and white vinegar.
After creating your own produce wash, spray it onto your produce. In addition to that, make sure to scrub vegetables and fruits with hard skins. You can finish up by rinsing with water your harvest in your kitchen sink. After that, you can enjoy the fruit of your hard work.
Honorable Mention: Create a Living Fence
Living fences are hedges or groups of trees, shrubs, or other plants that grow in a wall formation to provide privacy for your garden or yard. How cool is that?
Last Few Words
With these 13 clever gardening hacks, you can ensure that you have fun when gardening and make it an efficient process. In addition to making your life easier, some of these hacks also help keep your plants healthy. Therefore, you can keep your garden looking and smelling amazing throughout the year. Moreover, your produce will taste great and add great value to every meal when you use it after possibly years of labor.
Next up: want to know how to grow Brandywine tomatoes that will be the envy of the neighborhood?
Also, if you’re into DIY hacks and camping, you’re going to love these 24 DIY camping hacks!
About the author: Jenny Wallentine is a master gardener, home remodeling enthusiast, and DIY-er. She is also the co-founder of Origins International, a professional genealogy company specializing in helping adult adoptees find their birth parents, biological siblings to find one another, and people to get in touch with their genetic origins. When not remodeling a house or snowmobiling in the mountains, Jenny can be found enjoying her grandchildren.
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