Top Planting Hacks for DIYers
Recycled household items, attic flooring panels, and some vinegar can go a long way in creating an enchanting garden
It’s gardening month and what better way to celebrate than with some DIY hacks! We love seeing functionality brought out of everyday household materials like toilet paper tubes, soda cans, milk jugs…the list goes on and on. Dive into our creative list of 4 unique planting hacks designed to uplift your garden and produce the best results.
1First, let’s start with the infamous toilet paper tubes. These tubes are easily one of the OGs in DIY history. They have so many functions outside of holding our cotton tushy tissues. We have seen creators cut them down to size, paint, and arrange them into beautiful wall art; we have seen them used in school classrooms as pencil and marker organizers. They are everywhere! Today, let’s look at their benefit in the garden. Family Handyman reports that taking toilet paper tubes or paper towel tubes and cutting them into 2-inch sections creates easy and earth-friendly seedling starts. Just grab a waterproof tub, set your desired number of tubes in the tub, and add soil directly into each tube. Add your seeds and top off with a nice mist of H2O. When the seedlings are ready to be transplanted to your garden, leave them in their tubes as they will decompose naturally! Remove any excess cardboard when transplanting so the water stays with the plant instead of being absorbed into the exposed cardboard.
2While we are thinking about soil for our seedlings, have you ever considered what type of soil you might have? Naturally, our soil takes on whatever our environment has thrown at it. Crop run-off, wetter climates versus dryer climates, and organic matter decay can all give way to more acidic or more alkaline soil. What your soil’s pH levels are will determine how you should treat your soil to yield the best results. At home, gather some soil, vinegar, and baking soda. With a sample of soil, add vinegar. Do you see bubbles? This means you have alkaline soil. If you take a sample of soil, add baking soda, and see bubbles, this means you have acidic soil. Treatments include providing additives to your soil like limestone to acidic soil and iron sulfate to alkaline soil.
3Our third planting hack is so simple yet ingenious, we aren’t sure why we didn’t think of this sooner! When trying to edge around your yard, don’t become discouraged by shifting lines. Use a 2×6 board as your guide! Lay down the board, press it firmly with your foot to keep from moving, and create a perforation with a flat shovel or gardening spade. Now, you have established a straight line for seamless edging.
4Lastly, our favorite planting hack here at Attic Dek involves using attic flooring panels to create a healthy environment for seedling or potted plants. Potted plants are at risk of poor drainage which leads to saturated roots. This drowning of the roots is detrimental to the health of the plant. To create better drainage for starts and potted plants, be sure to use cartons and pots with drainage holes (or you can drill your own holes). This will allow the plants to properly drain excess water. Where does that water go if you have planted pots on your patio or porch? Well, gravity will win this one. Inevitably, the water will disperse on your flooring and trap itself under the pot creating a nice environment for mold and mildew. Instead, fashion yourself a stand with some 4×4 posts, order your attic flooring panels from Attic Dek, and create a self-draining station. The Green Thumb Nursery has perfected this at their home base in California. A smaller scaled version of this would be ideal for a back patio or front porch. BONUS: the elevated pots/seedlings now alleviate back pressure and pain. No more bending over to move pots or to manually drain your plants!
