In a creative hack, a gardener shared a fantastic reason to reuse your toilet paper rolls to benefit your gardening.
Author Nancy Skuce shared a video on her TikTok, hen.valley (@hen.valley), documenting how she utilizes old toilet rolls for growing squash and corn while living in a cooler area.
@hen.valley Toilet paper roll gardening! I start corn and squash in clear bins on my deck in late April early May. #gardening #gardeninghack #toiletpaperrollgardening ♬ original sound – hen.valley
The scoop
When you live in cooler regions, warmer weather takes longer to creep into your garden. As such, gardeners suggest starting seedlings indoors before transferring them outdoors. By using toilet paper rolls, there’s no need to purchase new garden trays for your starters; all the while, they allow the roots of your seeds to burrow deep before transferring to the ground.
“I use the toilet paper rolls because the roots can grow through and they can grow under, but it also peels off,” the gardener explained before planting her starters into the ground — plus, “it holds together nicely.”
To try it, just place some toilet paper rolls into a container and keep them inside. Add some soil, then plant the seedlings as you normally would. Once they are ready to transplant, just tear the toilet paper roll off and place it in the dirt.
How it’s helping
When it comes to buying products to help with gardening, the money can add up and eat into your savings. Typical seedling trays can go for around $20 at retail and garden stores, and they are often made from plastics that can seep into the soil.
Since everybody uses toilet paper rolls, there’s a guarantee that you will have them lying around the house, immediately saving you money and keeping you from driving to the store.
The World Counts says that roughly 184 billion rolls of toilet paper are wasted every year. This amount of wasted toilet paper contributes to methane gas polluting the air from decomposition in landfills. Microplastics from traditional seedling trays are further essential to watch out for, as they can impact our plants, wildlife, and food supply.
What everyone’s saying
The post garnered dozens of likes and comments from other TikTok users singing their praise for the idea.
“That’s brilliant!” one commenter exclaimed.
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Another put it best: “Repurposing and it’s effective.”
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