Gardening Hacks to Yield More Produce

Do you want to know how you can yield more produce in your garden this year? Regardless of whether you are a complete beginner or you have years of experience in gardening, these gardening hacks can be useful for you. Today, I will show you some gardening hacks that I’ve learned along the way that will not only make gardening easier but will also help you have bigger success when it comes to this year’s harvest.

Plus, most of these ideas are super easy and won’t cost you anything, as they require things that you can find at your home.

Are you ready? Then let’s jump right into it and take your gardening skills to the next level with the following amazing gardening hacks.

Use coffee grounds or egg shells in your garden

The first thing we will talk about is how you can reuse coffee grounds and egg shells in your garden.

Most likely, as part of your daily routine, when you get up in the morning, you make a coffee for yourself and your family. And then, you throw away the coffee grounds right after your morning brew. Does this sound like you? In that case, it may be a better idea to give those coffee grounds a second chance: use them as a fertilizer in your garden. They are great repellents for slugs, snails, and other critters as well.

Coffee grounds are acidic so be wary of adding too much to your plants. However, certain plants love acidic environments like blueberries, carrots, and radishes. (I always just mix some in with my top layer of new soil at the beginning of each season!)

In the same way, egg shells can also be reused. Instead of throwing away the egg shells, add them to the compost. First rinse them, then crush them, and finally place them around your plants. They work well as a natural fertilizer and they can also deter pests. The extra calcium the egg shells provide is particularly useful for plants like tomatoes, eggplants, and peppers to help prevent root rot.

Plant seedlings in egg shells

If you thought that you can use egg shells only as fertilizer and repellent, you are wrong. Other gardening hacks involve egg shells as well.

In empty egg shells, you can also grow seedlings. When you transfer the seedlings to your garden, you don’t need to remove the egg shells since they can naturally decompose.

If you don’t want to use egg shells, avocado skins, orange or lemon peels are also ideal for planting seedlings.

Use egg cartons or toilet paper tubes for seed starters

If you want to start seeds easily, save the egg cartons or toilet paper tubes for planting. First, if you work with toilet paper tubes, cut the tubes into half (in case of egg cartons you can skip this step), and place them on a tray. Then fill the tubes or the egg cartons with potting soil and put your seeds in them. The great thing is that if you start your seeds this way, you can plant the seedlings directly in the garden without removing the tubes or the cartons. They will decompose over time.

Place coffee filters into your pots

Some pots have huge drainage holes in the bottom which can make a huge mess as the soil is constantly falling out of the holes. However, you can easily solve this problem by placing some coffee filters in the bottom of your favorite pots. This will stop the dirt from coming out of the holes but the water can still flow out.

Add cinnamon to the seedling soil

Cinnamon has many health benefits for humans due to its anti-viral, anti-fungal, and anti-bacterial properties. No wonder your seedlings can also benefit from these. Simply add some cinnamon to the seedling soil. This way you can prevent various fungal diseases.

Another spice I’ve experimented with is cayenne pepper when we were having trouble with pesky squirrels. At first, I added to much and it left spots on some of my vegetable plant leaves- but with the right mix it did the trick!

Prune your plants

The next tip on gardening is about pruning. Pruning in general can control the shape of your plants while at the same time, it can also increase their productivity.

You can prune many plants. However, in the case of tomatoes, you can achieve especially great results with pruning. Between two leaves remove the stem at the buds, so more stems can grow in the place of the removed stem. Pruning will keep the tomato plant straight and organized, and you may expect more tomatoes to be produced by the plant. This is because your tomato plant will focus on fruiting instead of growing larger (aka a large jungle is what mine turns into without pruning!).

Regrow vegetables from scraps in water

Regrowing vegetables from scraps is one of the greatest gardening hacks. If you have some vegetable scraps at home, don’t hesitate to soak the ends of the vegetables in water. Many vegetables can regrow just by placing the end pieces or the roots into water. You can use this method for growing onions, lettuce, basil, garlic, celery, cilantro, and many other plants.

This tip can also help you to get more vegetables in your diet.

Pick green tomatoes before fall frost to ripen inside

If you would like to have more tomato produce, harvest the tomatoes before the frost hits. Pick all the mature fruits that have reached almost their full size. This way, you can ripen your green tomatoes inside. Make sure to wash them first and let them dry thoroughly. Then, you can choose if you want to ripen them in a bag, in a box, or on the windowsill:

• In a bag: Place the green tomatoes in a paper bag, close it, and then put the bag in a warm place in your house. If you would like to accelerate the process of ripening, also put a ripe apple or banana in the bag.
• In a box: Put the green tomatoes in a cardboard box in a way that you keep a little distance between the tomatoes, and close the box. Similar to the bag method, you can place a ripe banana in the box as well.
• On the windowsill: You can also put some tomatoes on a sunny windowsill next to your windowsill herb garden. But in this case, you should choose tomatoes that are not completely green.

Regardless of which method you use, make sure to check the tomatoes daily for rot and mold. If you have a large number of tomatoes left that you don’t want to ripen all at once, you can also store them somewhere colder (like a garage) and take batches of them out at at a time ripen. Doing this one year, I had fresh tomatoes through January! I’d admit they didn’t have quite the same flavor but they still beat the store bought tomatoes hand down. I most often used them for salsa and sauces because of this, which was perfect for our meals!

Related read: Budget Meal Planning Made Healthy and Easy

Grow your plants in raised beds

Raised garden beds can be beneficial both for you and your plants. Besides creating raised beds is a great free time activity, you can also enjoy the closeness to nature. Plus, raised beds are better for your back as well!

Compared to regular garden beds, raised beds bring more organization into your garden, and you can keep pests and weeds away much easier.

Use a snip and drip system with a timer for watering

When it comes to watering, installing a snip and drip watering system with a timer can be a real game-changer. A snip and drip system can save you a lot of water as the water goes directly where you need it: to the roots. Besides, the foliage will also stay dry. Setting up a daily timer is my favorite hack of all and is what kept my plants well hydrated and happy all summer long!

You can create your own snip and drip watering system at home with a few tools. If you need some help on how to do that, here is a tutorial.

Use water bottles to water plants

If you are going on a vacation and you don’t have anyone to ask to water your plants while you are away, here is a great hack for you. Fill some plastic or glass water bottles with water, then as quick as you can turn them upside down and push them into the soil next to your plants. Make sure to place them at least a few inches deep. With this trick, the soil will remain moist near the plants.

Related read: Why you Need a Garden this Spring: Your Guide to Summer Gardening Success

Keep a box in the kitchen for food waste

Since we are producing a lot of food waste in the kitchen, probably you should consider keeping a dedicated box for food scraps that you can later add to your composter and use as a fertilizer in the garden. The best is to save all your vegetable and fruit peelings, coffee grounds, and tea leaves.

Hopefully, you liked our gardening hacks and you will try out at least a few of them. By using these garden tips, you can surely improve your gardening skills and yield more produce this season. Plus, more fresh produce means less room in your life for other junky foods!

Besides the above-mentioned garden hacks, do you know other useful tips on gardening? If yes, we would love to hear them out!