You don’t necessarily need to have a green thumb to start gardening. A good dose of passion, a touch of creativity and a little patience will do the trick. If you want to boost your vegetable garden, there are some tips, sometimes unusual, that will help you to beautify your organic plantations. As everyone knows, enriching the soil is always the best way to speed up crops. Quickly discover this unusual method, which turns out to be very promising!
Some objects sometimes seem useless to us. In order not to be in the way, they are systematically thrown away. However, very often, we can perfectly reuse them wisely. Recycling enthusiasts will be happy to know that toilet paper rolls can be very useful for gardening. In fact, we can give them a second wind by making seedlings that will help their seeds germinate. A simple and very inexpensive technique that will surprise you!
Step by step, we will show you how to sow seeds in the garden using only toilet paper rolls.
How to use toilet paper rolls for seedlings?
Will need :
- A pair of scissors
- A spoon
- A roll of toilet paper
- A land of sowing
Step 1: Make jars from toilet paper rolls
Using scissors, make 4 cuts at the ends of the roll and fold them inwards to fill the opening and create a well-sealed bottom. In a few seconds, you will have a biodegradable pot for your seedlings. Repeat the same process with all the toilet paper rolls you will need to plant your seedlings .
Step 2: Prepare the soil and plant the seedlings
Using a spoon, fill your pots with a soil specially adapted for seedlings. Tamp down well with the back of the spoon.
Then, place your pots on a saucer and water the soil preferably with clear, not calcareous water. Your soil is now ready to receive seedlings. Using a toothpick or a needle, make a small hole in the centre of the potting soil to install the seeds. If they are small seeds, such as tomato seeds for example, then you can put 2 or 3 seeds in the soil. If, on the other hand, they are large, then settle for just one seed.
Please note that each pot should contain only one variety of seeds. Then cover your seeds with some potting soil. Lightly moisten it by spraying it with a little water.
Step 3: Plant the pots directly into the ground
Store your jars in a lighted room at room temperature. Water them every day, but lightly. Young shoots will appear after a few days.
Wait until they are big enough to plant the toilet paper rolls directly into the ground. If you prefer to grow indoors, use a large pot to start your seeds. This will allow your plants to grow, without you having to touch their roots to transplant them. In fact, transplanting risks weakening the roots of certain plants.
Good to know: The advantage of using toilet paper rolls is that cardboard is biodegradable and therefore you will not need to remove the young shoots and then plant them in the ground.
Once all these steps have been completed, all that remains is to be patient and wait for the sprouts to slowly develop.
When to sow?
Sowing depends on the type of plants and whether or not they can tolerate cold weather. For perennials, known for their resistance to low temperatures, they can be sown in autumn. Undemanding, exotic and tropical plants can be planted all year round. On the other hand, for vegetables and flowers that do not tolerate cold or frost, you should think about sowing them between February and April.
Why plant plants?
Sowing is an important step in gardening. It allows you to obtain young shoots called seedlings, thanks to the germination of the sown seeds. As an added benefit, this operation is very economical, because the purchase of seeds is much less expensive than that of ready-made plants.
In addition, seedlings will allow you to have a wide variety of vegetables or flowering plants at home. Indeed, some vegetables are not always available in the form of transplanted plants. This is particularly the case for certain vegetables such as carrots, fabaceae or beans. They are not sold in the form of plants: they must then be grown and sown in the garden in order to be harvested.
You should also know that seedlings keep for a long time. Therefore, you can use them at any time in your vegetable garden, as long as you store them well.
Tip: Store your seeds in a silica gel bag to prevent possible fungus due to humidity.
You’ll understand, don’t throw away your toilet paper rolls! So, you can recycle them by adopting this ingenious method of sowing and planting young shoots in the ground or in a pot, without weakening their roots.