Gardening is not just a hobby, it’s a lifestyle. Whether you are a beginner or a garden expert, there is always something new to learn about it. Today we want to share some gardening hacks with all of you to help you enrich your garden in the new year. These hacks are so easy that you will find most of these garden enriching ideas coming from you home and kitchen. Let the new year begin with repurposing useful items for a lesser wastage and helping the environment as well as your pocket.
- Citrus peel starter pot: Let’s start with something tangy and one of the most awesome hacks. Creating an eco-friendly and plant loving pot for your new seedlings. All you need is a large lemon and clear it from inside to create a perfect beginner home for your plants and a perfect acidic environment for the seedling. Poke a hole in the bottom for drainage and fill it with soil and sow the seeds. Sprinkle some water and when the seedling is ready for its permanent home, plant it along with lemon peel. The peel gets decomposed and all the nutrients from the lemon will help nourish the plant. Do keep in mind to grow the seedlings that prefer acidity.
- Eggshell pots: Just like citrus peel, this is another nutritious hack to start your seedlings. All you need to do is break your eggs in the way that you are able to make a small pot out of it. After you have emptied the shells, wash them and fill them with seedlings and soil. In case of lemon pots, the citrus helped enrich the plants and soil with acidity, eggshells contain calcium, magnesium and many other nutrients that help the plants thrive.
- Homemade weed killer: No need to get chemicals in your garden to remove these stubborn weeds. Vinegar is your friend in the garden as well. A natural way to keep pests as well as weeds at bay and helping your plants stay nourished and not get robbed of all the nutrition you adding into the garden. One needs to be careful about the usage though. The concentration to be used that are safe for you and your garden are your basic store bought white or apple cider vinegar containing only 5%. Higher concentrations can hurt you as well your plants and are not safe. Take one gallon of vinegar, add one cup of salt and stir. Add one oz of liquid soap to the mixture and your weed killer s ready. Put it in a spray bottle and spray it in the affected areas. Be careful to not spray it on your plants. You will need to repeat it every two weeks till you kill the weeds completely.
- Caffeine Kick: Just like we need that morning caffeine kick, our plants enjoy it as well. Using coffee grounds help with the aeration of the soil as well as attract the microorganisms beneficial for plant growth. (many plant benefitting microorganisms love coffee grounds which as a worm food for them. Another thing to remember is if you don’t want to raise the acid level of the soil by adding coffee grounds, just add used coffee ground. If you rinse your used coffee grounds and add them to the soil, they will have a neutral ph. of 6.5 and will not affect the acid level of the soil and keep it balanced.
- Cooking water for added nutrition to your plants: This hack helps your plants as well saves water you from water wastage as well. When you boil or steam vegetables or eggs, you can use the water to fertilize your plants rather than pouring it down the drain. Let the water cool down and use it water your garden instead of wasting the water and all the nutrition it has from the boiled veggies.
- Save your plants from transplant shock: Save your plants from the transplant shock by adding a tablespoon of Epsom salt in the bottom by digging a hole and cover it with a thin layer of dirt and place the plant of top and finish the planting process.
These are some of the most basic beginner friendly as well as beneficial hacks for all the gardeners to know and use them for a better garden and environment.
