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Gardening has become a popular hobby in the UK with 42 percent of Britons in the UK enjoying gardening in their spare time. However, gardening can be expensive, especially for those with large outdoor spaces that need a lot of maintenance.
To help save money, TV presenter and author Steve Wilson has shared his handy garden hacks using plastic milk bottles.
Most people have milk bottles in their fridge or recycling bins so rather than throwing them away, Steve suggested using them to create your own gardening tools.
Steve often appears on ITV’s This Morning reporting on gadgets, toys and gifts. However, in a video from 2016, Steve shared how to save money by reusing milk bottles as trowels, watering cans and a mini “greenhouse”.
Steve explained: “We’ve all got milk bottles. You finish your meal and what are you going do with them?
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Watering can
Milk bottles can also be used as watering cans in the garden. Using a watering can will help save on water bills and helps to control the flow of water onto the plant.
Using a jug of water or a hosepipe can cause the compost to become wet too quickly and splash on clothes, fences and other surfaces.
To make the watering can, simply poke some holes in the top of the lid of the milk bottle and fill it with water.
Trowels
Using scissors, gardeners can also use milk bottles to make their own “handy” little trowel or scoop.
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This can be used to either put compost in pots and containers, dig holes for plants in borders or for getting rid of dog/cat faeces from gardens.
Water reservoir
Gardeners can also use milk bottles to make their own reservoirs for container plants.
Steve said: “This is very straightforward. So it’s just basically a way of watering your plants and you can pop the water in.
“This is just a two-litre plastic bottle with the bottom cut off and then pour the water in and it will gradually seep through into the soil. The soil will just take what it needs.”
The tinfoil hack
As well as milk bottles, Steve shared a tip using tin foil to help seedlings get exposed to more sunlight.
Using cardboard and tinfoil, gardeners can get more sunlight to reflect onto their indoor plants or seedlings.
Get a square piece of cardboard and place it on some foil. The tinfoil needs to be larger than the piece of cardboard.
Wrap the tinfoil around the piece of cardboard and fold it into place. The screen can then be placed behind a potted plant in a window so when the sunlight shines in, it will reflect it.
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