10 Surprising Kitchen Ingredients That'll Keep Your Garden Growing
Who knew pantry staples would help your plants thrive?
Every gardener knows that keeping your plants healthy and happy is the key to creating (and maintaining) a flourishing garden. Although it can be tempting to splurge on all the fancy fertilizers and trendy garden gadgets out there, this route isn’t always sustainable. Instead of regularly putting a dent in your wallet for the sake of your crops’ well-being, you can opt for an alternative method that’s less costly, more convenient, and way simpler. The secret to making your plants thrive? It’s hiding in your kitchen!
Some of the pantry items you use on a daily basis act like a quasi-fertilizer when you add them to your garden’s soil. From your breakfast scraps to your baking essentials, these edible ingredients deliver important nutrients to your shrubs, trees, and flowers, helping them grow faster and stronger. So, the next time you brew a pot of coffee, scramble some eggs, or whip up banana bread, be sure to set your remnants aside for later!
Wondering which unexpected items have secret superpowers? Here are 10 unexpected kitchen ingredients that’ll give your garden a boost.
Find out more ways to elevate your garden:
Coffee Grounds
After you brew your morning cup of coffee (and before you savor every cozy sip), you probably throw the grounds in the trash without a second thought. But these scraps are actually brimming with nutrients that your soil craves! Coffee grounds contain nitrogen, which promotes plant growth. This waste product also attracts earthworms, which make the soil more fertile. Coffee grounds are especially beneficial for acid-loving plants like tomatoes, blueberries, and roses.
Banana Peels
Banana peels are another kitchen ingredient rich in essential vitamins and minerals like potassium and phosphorus, which are perfect for tending to blossoming plants. To maximize the positive impact on your garden, chop up the peels and bury them in the soil near the roots. You can also create a fertilizer paste by soaking the peels in water or grinding them into a powder before mixing the concoction into the soil.
Eggshells
The next time you prepare a breakfast casserole, a veggie-stuffed omelette, or even a batch of moist muffins, be sure to save the eggshells! When you crush them up and disperse the fragments around your plants, they'll enrich your soil with calcium, which strengthens plant cell walls and wards off unwanted issues like rotting. Additionally, eggshells balance the pH of your soil and deter nagging pests like slugs and snails.
Baking Soda
Baking soda is one of the most multifaceted kitchen items. Not only is it a staple ingredient in many baked goods, but it also helps flowers bloom, sweetens tomato crops, and prevents fungal diseases, thanks to its alkalinity. Scatter it across the surface of your soil and watch alkaline-loving blossoms like coneflowers, clematis, and geraniums soar. To fight fungus, pour a teaspoon of baking soda into a liter of water and spray the leaves of any fungus-prone plants.
Apple Peels
If you're making Ree Drummond’s Dreamy Apple Pie, Apple Dumplings, or Apple-Cranberry Stuffing any time soon, keep the peels for your garden! When you cut them up and place them in the soil, the peels will break down into natural sugars that nourish microbes, which are soil-boosting powerhouses. Just make sure there aren’t any remnants on the soil’s surface, which can attract pesky critters!
Molasses
Chances are, you have a bottle of molasses tucked away in your pantry—especially if you’re a fan of Ree’s Spicy Molasses Cookies or Gingerbread Cookies! This thick, sugary substance feeds microbes in the soil and helps plants absorb their nutrients more effectively. To enhance your vegetation, spray your soil with a mixture made with one tablespoon of molasses and a gallon of water.
Rice Water
The water you use to boil rice has a lot of unexpected benefits for your plants. Rice water offers nutrients like nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium that are pivotal for the health of your soil. Instead of pouring the cooking water down the drain, store it for watering houseplants or garden vegetables (just make sure it cools first!). For another easy method, you can also simply soak grains of rice in water that isn’t heated and use the strained liquid as a fertilizer.
Used Tea Bags
If steeping tea is part of your everyday routine, you’ll definitely want to salvage the leftovers for your plants! The herbs inside natural tea bags have tannins that strengthen the soil, and they slightly lower its pH, which is especially great for acid-loving plants. All you have to do is rip open the tea bag and dust the top of the soil with the remnants.
Carrot Tops
The tops of carrots might be an incredibly specific kitchen ingredient, but they’re extremely powerful garden helpers. When buried in the soil, carrot tops and their leaves release nutrients like potassium when they decompose. They also help the soil lock in moisture and prevent weeds from suffocating your crops and flowers. Other leftover veggies, such as onion ends and celery leaves, will also give your grounds a burst of nutrition.
Cornmeal
Swap chemical weedkillers for a non-toxic solution that’s likely lying in your pantry. Cornmeal, a standard ingredient in beloved cornbread, is an effective preventative measure for keeping weeds at bay. For the best results, get rid of all the overgrown vegetation in your garden before sprinkling cornmeal across the grounds. Otherwise, if the weeds have already sprouted, you could end up fueling their growth!
Lilly Blomquist is the associate editor at The Pioneer Woman, where she writes lifestyle stories across a wide range of topics—including news, entertainment, holidays, food, and more.
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