If you are a tea lover and you are also a gardener – you are gonna love this article. Here I’m gonna tell you gardening hacks using old tea bags that will help you in your garden in many things.
Most people drink 2 or 3 cups of tea in summer and in winter maybe more. After enjoying that tea time, they throw the used bags in the garbage can. But after reading this article, I’m sure you will not toss used tea bags away.
1: Helps In Composting
Compost is the most important ingredient of the soil if you wanted to grow better vegetables and fruit plants. Yes, you can buy compost from the market, but there is no fun about that. You can make your compost using kitchen and garden waste and used tea bags can be a great addition in the compost pile.
Old tea bags in compost are great because:
- they add extra nitrogen which is great for composting
- they also attract good bacteria that helps in decomposing wastes
If tea bags of yours are made of plastic, do not throw them in the compost pile. Instead, open the plastic bags and use only tea leaves.
Also Read: How To Make Compost At Home Using Kitchen And Garden Wastes
2: Get Rid Of Pests
Pests can be a tricky business for gardeners. They can eat your crops in no time. Most of the gardeners don’t like to use commercial pesticides in their garden as they contain harmful chemicals plus commercial pesticides are not very cheap.
Here is a way to make cheap and organic pesticide:
Brew an old tea with used bags. Now add this water in a spray bottle. Now spray the water on affected branches or leaves of plants. This water also has some nutritional value for plants. So you can kill the pests and give fertilizer to your plants using the same water.
3: Feed Your Plants
There are tons and tons of fertilizers available in the market and some of them are organic, with no harmful chemicals and are very cheap. But we are looking for simple hacks that you can use for your plants.
Used tea bags can be used as fertilizer for small potted plants. Just slit open the used tea bag, collect the tea leaves, and spread these leaves on the soil of your potted plants. Look for a weak plant and give this supplement to that plant.
Tea leaves will increase the nitrogen level in soil, soil structure will be improved and earthworms in the soil will be happy to eat these leaves.
Also Read: How To Make Potting Soil At Home For Container Gardening
4: Make Acid Loving Houseplants Happy
Different plants love different kinds of soil. Some plants love acidic soil and some appreciate alkaline soil. If you have any acid-loving houseplant like ferns, you can use old tea bags as fertilizer.
Just slit open the used tea bags and extract the tea leaves from it. Now sprinkle that tea leaves on the topsoil of your houseplant. Tea leaves will provide extra nitrogen and some nutrients for plants. Your acid-loving houseplants will flourish after the application of used tea leaves.
5: Another Way To Speed-up The Process Of Composting
I already mentioned the benefits of making your own compost. The process of composting can be very smelly. We should use these little hacks to speed up the process. Here is another trick to use old tea bags in composting bin of yours:
Brew a strong tea using used tea bags. Cooldown the tea and pour it on the compost heap with used bags. The process of composting will be faster because it makes your compost pile a little acidic and adds nitrogen in it. Also, tea leaves will attract some helping bacteria.
Also Read: How To Make Compost At Home Using Kitchen And Garden Wastes
6: Organic Liquid Fertilizer
I already tell you about using tea leaves as fertilizers. Here is how to make liquid fertilizer for your plants in containers. Liquid fertilizers are great for container gardens as it can provide nutrients at a higher pace if we compare to other fertilizers.
Brew a weak tea using old tea bags. These brewed tea leaves with water will be a great fertilizer for your container garden. This tea contains tons of required minerals, carbohydrates, and so many more beneficial nutrients.
7: Give Your Roses A Boost
Roses 🌹 are my favorite. They come in so many different colors. Roses are very hardy plants, most of the time, they don’t need any kind of fertilizer. But if you want to make them happy to produce more beautiful and vibrant color flowers, you can use the help of used tea bags.
Just open some old tea bags and sprinkle the leaves of tea on the soil of roses. Tea leaves will provide extra nutrients and nitrogen to fix for your plant’s roots. These two important ingredients of soil will help your plants to produce more beautiful flowers in the near future.
8: Make A Water Retention Device
Plants or any kind of living being cannot live without water. The required amount of water is really important for good growth of your plants. In hot summer days, it is hard for some people to give water on a daily basis for some reason. Here is how to use old tea bags for water retention:
Just bury some old tea bags in the soil, near to the roots of your plants. These bags will absorb extra water and plants can absorb this water when needed. Plus teabags will decompose after some time and provide nutrients to your plants. So it is a two-fold benefit trick.
Also Read: Every Thing About Watering Your Plants In A Raised Bed Garden
9: Grow Seeds In Used Tea Bags
As I mentioned before, tea bags are full of nutrients for plants. We can use these bags to grow seeds in them directly. Here is how to grow seeds in used tea bags:
- Collect some old tea bags and some paper towels
- Fold your paper towel on a plastic tray and put these used bags on the top of it. Wet the paper towel before putting anything on it
- Now make a hole in each tea bag and sow the seeds. Put your plastic tray near a window for sunlight
- Keep your paper towel wet for the required moisture level for seeds.
- When seeds germinate and reach to a certain height, transparent them into their final location with their teabags.
Also Read: 30 Fast Growing Vegetables In Pots (Growth Time Mentioned)
10: Clean Your Houseplants
Houseplants can get really dirty in this age of air pollution. There are tons of pollutants and dirt in the air that can make the leaves of our houseplants looks dirty.
You can simply use wet and old used tea bags to clean the leaves. Clean the leaves and sprinkle the tea leaves from the bags on the soil for an extra treat.
11: The strong smell of used tea bags can keep kittens aways from your garden. Kittens can destroy the look of your garden in no time. Sprinkle the tea leaves near your garden especially near your beloved plants to keep neighborhood kittens away.
12: By using these old tea bags, you are doing some great recycling for the earth. Mother-earth will be happy with you. Plus all of these benefits from used tea bags are basically free.