More and more, people are realizing that gardening is an important activity. Pretty much everyone has heard that egg shells are good for the garden and snails are attracted to beer, but there are so many other strange, unusual, and lesser known gardening hacks that can up your gardening game many times over. In this article, we’ll some lesser-known gardening tips that will help you grow the most bodacious garden of your life.
Use rabbit poop
Adding rabbit manure to a garden is among my all time favorite gardening hacks. Rabbit manure is one of the best types of natural fertilizer to use in your garden. It is not considered a “hot manure” meaning it doesn’t need to be composted before being applied to your garden. Rabbit poop is loaded with phosphorus, potassium and nitrogen, all vital nutrients for healthy soil. If you love bunnies and gardening, keeping a rabbit or two around the house will supply you with an endless supply of one of the best fertilizers for pretty much no money!
Read More: How To Use Rabbit Manure In The Garden
Plant in a coffee filter
Do coffee grounds really improve your garden soil? Sort of. Too much coffee grounds in the soil can turn your soil acidic and wind up harming your garden. But coffee filters are another story! When you plant a new potted plant, place a coffee filter at the bottom. The filter will serve two purposes: preventing drainage holes from being plugged by soil and making transplanting easier by holding the soil together at the base of your plant. Choose an organic, non-bleached filter!
Apply used boiled egg water
This tip is super weird but actually does benefit your garden! When you boil eggs, hold onto the water! During the process of boiling, your eggs’ shells will leech out a small amount of calcium. Healthy soil does need at least a bit of calcium, so if you suspect your soil is calcium deficient, a little boiled egg water can go a long way. Just be sure you allow the water to cool before applying!
Add potassium, but don’t bother with banana peels
It’s true that roses love a dose of potassium in the soil they’re planted in, but burying a banana peel next to your rose garden won’t do much to help. Instead, mulch potato peels and spinach into your compost and amend the soil around your roses each year to add the necessary nutrients for your garden.
Read More: 8 Uses For Banana Peels In The Garden
Let your trees sway
Many believe that young trees should be staked to prevent them from being damaged by the wind, but think about all the trees in nature that managed to grow up just fine without any extra help. Allowing your trees to sway actually helps them build stronger, more resilient trunks. Trees should be staked, however, if you live in an area with very high winds and are planting delicate trees.
Forget the coffee grounds
We’ve talked a bit about how coffee filters can help your garden, but what about the coffee grounds? One of the more common gardening hacks to add coffee grounds to your garden, but you should be very cautious about how much you add and how often. Coffee grounds can turn your garden soil more acidic than your plants would like, potentially harming them and stunting your garden. A bit of coffee grounds in your compost is fine, but don’t go overboard.
Use old pennies to repel pests
This one’s pretty weird but it seems to really work! Slugs, when they encounter copper, tend to turn their slimy little tails and head the other direction. Pennies minted before 1982 are about 95% copper, so if you’re having slug troubles, see if a barrier of old pennies helps turn them away. Note: newer pennies are about 97.5% zinc with a very thin copper coating, making them less up for the task at hand.
Talk to your garden about politics
Plants love to hear you talk about politics. Okay, you can talk to them about anything really, but isn’t the idea of complaining about a politician to a plant kind of funny? Plants are able to react to various stimuli, and vibration may be one of them. Talking to your plants definitely has a place on this list of weird gardening hacks!
“There isn’t a lot of research in this area,” said Rich Marini, the head of Penn State’s horticulture department, back in 2008. “But there is evidence that plants respond to sound.”
Protect your melons with panty hose
There’s nothing worse than having melons become so juicy and heavy that they wind up snapping off the vine before they’re fully ripened. An old pair of nylons may be able to save your melons from this sad fate! Use a pair of panty hose to create a makeshift sling for your melons, helping support them as they grow and ripen.
Regrow your old kitchen scraps
If you’re a fan of celery, romaine lettuce, or onions but don’t want to keep buying them from the store over and over again, I have good news for you: you don’t have to! Those vegetables, alongside leeks and carrots and many others, will grow back if planted! Note: if you replant a carrot top, it won’t likely regrow a new carrot, but it will send up flowers that will produce viable seeds for your next season!
