A gardening expert has shown four ways you can make use of cardboard parcels in your garden.
For many of us, when we get a cardboard parcel delivered our first thought is to put it in the recycling bin as it’s often only seen as a box that is used to store items. However, Adam Kirtland, known as View From The Potting Bench on social media, has demonstrated how you can use cardboard from parcels in your garden to protect plants.
He posted a video on TikTok where he said: “We all get parcels delivered from time to time and rather than putting the box in the recycling bin try these four things for your garden instead.” Kirtland advises to first remove tape and any labels from the box before doing anything else.
Here are the four ways he suggests using cardboard boxes in your garden:
1. Mulch
The gardening specialist instructs to create mulch by cutting your cardboard box into small pieces and laying them on top of plant pots and containers before watering them down to stop them from blowing away. The Royal Horticultural Society (RHS) explains on its website that mulching is generally used to save water, suppress weeds and improve the soil around plants but it also gives your garden a neat, tidy appearance and can allow you to spend less time on tasks like watering and weeding.
Mulches are loose coverings or sheets of material placed on the surface of soil that can be applied to bare soil or to cover the surface of compost in containers. They help soil retain moisture in summer, rain to penetrate the soil in winter, prevent weeds from growing and protect the roots of plants in winter, as per the RHS.
2. New beds or borders
Kirtland’s next tip is to use cardboard to create new beds or borders. He said: “You can lay it straight on the top of pieces of grass that you want to turn into beds, add compost on top, water it and let it rot away.You can even plant straight into this straight away.”
Preparing a garden bed with cardboard makes that ideal environment for the plants you intend to grow, according to Roots and Refuge. The gardening resource explains that the cardboard traps warmth and retains moisture in the soil, and forces any existing seeds to germinate. Also, at the same time, the cardboard “blocks out any light to the sprouted seeds causing them to die” and this creates a “sterile environment for planting.”
3. Stop weeds
Kirtland’s third way to use cardboard in your garden is to stop weeds by making a weed suppressant collar. He suggests placing a pot on a sheet of cardboard that’s the same size as the one you want to put the weed suppressant collar in and drawing around the pot to make a circle.
Then, he says to take it away and draw another smaller shape inside the circle before cutting this out and adding what’s left of the cardboard around the plant or tree that you want to use it around. The gardening expert added: “Once you’ve done this, give it a good water and then add a mulch layer on the top.
“You can either use leaves or compost, whichever it is that you’ve got to hand. If you do use compost you can choose to plant straight through it as well, as I’ve done here. This is a great sustainable way of suppressing weeds.”
4. Slug defence
Kirtland’s final tip is to use cardboard to defend your plants from slugs. He recommends adding a small piece of cardboard next to plants, like hostas, and then come back later to find slugs sitting on it.
You can then take the cardboard with the slugs on it away from your plants. He concluded his TikTok video: “So, instead of putting your cardboard in the recycling bin think about how you might be able to use it in the garden instead.”