Next time you boil vegetables, or eggs, don’t just get rid of the water right away when you’re done. Instead, let the water cool and let your plants drink it. The nutrients leftover in the water will give your plants an extra boost, and they’ll love you for it.
This hack helps you to cut back on waste while delivering essential vitamins to your garden. It’s best to keep up the fertilization process in your garden for the first 45 days after you’ve planted veggies and herbs since it’s when they need the nutrients most. Of course, you can keep it up if you wish, since it isn’t like the vegetable water can hurt them.
Hydrogen Peroxide for Root Rot
Everyone should have at least one bottle of hydrogen peroxide laying around the house, if not an entire case of it. This stuff has so many wonderful uses for around the home, it’s crazy. It can be used for everything from cleaning out wounds, to lifting stains from fabric, to boosting dish soap in dishwashing cycles. But it can also be used directly outside of the home, too – to prevent and cure root rot in your plants!
To prevent root rot in your garden, mix a solution of one-part hydrogen peroxide to 5 parts water (about 3-5% hydrogen peroxide only) and shake up in a water bottle. Then, insert a spray nozzle and spray the solution directly on to the roots of your plants once per day. Another good thing about this solution is it’s not harmful to other plants, so if you accidentally spray it on anything else in your garden, all is well.
Use Plastic Bottles to Keep Plants Hydrated
This tip is not only great for ensuring that your plants get enough water, but it’s also a terrific way to recycle and reuse old plastic bottles. Save up your old water or soda bottles and poke holes all over the entire area, aside from the neck. Holes should be about two inches apart.
After you’ve planted your bottles, each time you water your garden and/or fill them manually with the pot, the water in the bottles will empty slowly, keeping your plants consistently hydrated for a longer period of time. This is a great hack for someone who doesn’t get the chance to water their garden as much as they’d like.
2-Liter Greenhouse
Well, when we said this can be achieved with any plastic container, we weren’t exaggerating. The same effect can be reached using any old 2-liter bottle that has been properly rinsed out. This one works a bit differently but still works to create a barrier that protects your seedlings from harsh winds and weather. Cut the bottom quarter off of your 2-liters and push them down into the soil so that the neck of the bottle is facing up towards the sky.
Depending on the size of your seedlings, you can also use a 1-liter and other smaller bottles. Or, you can start off with smaller bottles and switch to 2-liters as the seedlings mature, much like you alternate your child’s shoes every few months when they’re growing up. Yes, I just compared your kid to a seedling.
A Mini Plastic Greenhouse
When you hear the term “greenhouse,” you probably imagine one of the large, clear buildings where multiple rows of plants are grown at once. But the truth is, a greenhouse can be any structure used to trap heat and keep plants safe as they grow, hence these DIY greenhouses that you can make using large, empty Tupperware containers. Just line the bins with whatever you’re using for seedlings (Styrofoam cups, citrus peels, etc.,) and place them in an area where they’ll get enough light.
This same effect can be achieved using any plastic container. You can use smaller bins, like those that rotisserie chicken and fruit come home from the store in, to fill with dirt and seedlings as well. Those containers are often perfect for seedlings due to the slits in them that allow them to properly aerate