Don't Throw Out That Egg Carton. Use It For This Easy Gardening Hack Instead

Once you finish a carton of eggs, resist the urge to throw the cardboard container right in the trash. Instead, use it to help you start new additions to your garden off right. Gardening is good for everyone and is especially beneficial for kids, as it's a great opportunity to help them gain self-confidence, care more about nature, and learn about nutrition. Of course, this gardening hack is a great way to start training your green thumb, no matter what your age. The world can always use more plants.

The hack goes like this: take your cardboard egg carton and fill each cup with a small amount of potting soil. Make a small divot in each cup, then put a seed inside, cover it with soil, and spray with a small amount of water. Put the carton with your newly planted seeds on a solid surface in an area in your home that gets an appropriate amount of sunlight for what you've planted. Water as appropriate (check the seed packet for more info there). Once the seedlings sprout, you can transfer them outside to the ground or a more permanent container. When transferring, saturate the carton with water and separate each cup. Plant them in appropriately-sized holes while leaving the seedlings uncovered. The cardboard will break down, giving the roots room to spread.

Native plants in particular are great choices since they're beneficial to your area, are well-suited for the conditions in your garden, and are better for pollinators. Your kids will love seeing the butterflies and hummingbirds your new plants attract to your garden.

While using this hack, there are a few important things to remember if you want your new plants to grow to maturity. The first is to protect the seedlings while they grow. Birds and bugs often love munching on vulnerable young plants, after all. For this purpose, you can utilize another gardening hack and use onion sacks to protect your garden instead of throwing them out. Other good options for protecting your new seedlings include sheets and drop cloths.

Also, get your plants used to being outdoors before you transfer them permanently. If you take them straight from indoors to outdoors, they could suffer and even die off due to the harsh sun. To acclimate your plants, take them outside in the shade for an hour or two each day a few days before the final transfer.

Finally, if you're doing this with your kids, document the process. Take pictures of your kids with the seedlings they're helping grow each day. This is a great opportunity to bond and show them the literal fruits of their labors. Once the plants are grown, those pictures can go in a scrapbook to make a treasured family memory. And it doesn't have to stop after that. You can keep gardening with your kids and use more gardening hacks like sticking an empty wine bottle neck-down into the soil to make watering easier.