There’s no need to wait for warm weather to start planting a vegetable garden. One TikTok user shared an ingenious method of repurposing a common household item to get a head start on spring sowing.
The scoop
TikToker Laura (@gardendujour) recommended collecting empty toilet paper tubes to help sweet pea seedlings develop their roots.
@gardendujour A little gardening hack I swear by… Sweet peas LOVE deep roots, and toilet roll tubes make the perfect free root trainers. Sow now, keep them cool + bright, and you’ll have the strongest plants ready for spring. 🌱💚 #gardenhack #gardeningtips #sweetpeas #toiletrollhack ♬ original sound – laila masumi
“Sweet peas love deep roots,” Laura wrote. “Toilet roll tubes act like FREE root trainers.”
The video shows the TikToker placing six toilet paper tubes vertically in a garden bed, filling them with soil, poking seeds inside, and spraying them with water. The video concluded by advising viewers, “Plant straight into the ground in spring.”
How it’s helping
This simple hack saves money on store-bought seed starters while ensuring the health of next year’s garden.
Many of the inexpensive seed starters you can find at garden centers are made of nonbiodegradable materials like plastic, which require gardeners to pry young plants from their containers before transplanting them in the ground. However, because cardboard TP rolls are derived from trees, they break down easily when planted straight into the soil. Using homemade seed starters, therefore, saves you a step in the gardening process while sparing you a trip to the nursery.
It’s also a win for the environment. Even though paper is more readily recyclable than plastics, millions of tons of paper products still wind up in landfills every year, where they release planet-warming gases. Anything you can do to prevent paper from entering the waste stream can help safeguard our planet, from composting it to using it in DIY projects.
Lastly, using toilet paper tubes as seed starters will help you reap the many personal and environmental benefits of gardening. Studies show the physical exercise and nutritional benefits of growing vegetables make gardeners healthier than those who don’t garden. It’s also a time-tested way to destress while spending time in nature.
What everyone’s saying
Commenters were already stashing their toilet paper rolls in anticipation of the coming growing season.
“I have a ton of these waiting for spring,” one user wrote.
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Another commenter asked if they could sow peas in winter, to which the original poster replied: “An autumn/winter sowing gives them a head start and stronger root systems. Just keep them somewhere cool, bright and frost-free like a windowsill, or unheated greenhouse.”
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