An urban gardener has shared an easy way to reap the money-saving benefits of growing your own food, and her hack makes use of something many people already have lying around.
The scoop
Many eggs are now sold in biodegradable cartons, but Instagrammer Fanny (@fansinthegarden) ran into a dilemma when she received some eggs in a bulky trifold plastic container.
"To try to reuse the carton, I thought it would be fun to grow something in it," she explained. "I'm growing lettuce because I can easily harvest the outer leaves to keep the plant small."
To start, she poked tiny holes in the bottom of the egg cups so that water would be able to drain. Then she added soil, noting in a comment that she used "seed starting mix cuz the roots of the newly sprouted seeds can't push through soil that's too chunky."
After that, she sowed the seeds and sprayed the soil with water. She placed the seeded tray in a separate carton fold filled with water, drained the excess water, and simply monitored her mini-garden's growth.
How it's helping
In addition to saving people hundreds of dollars on store-bought produce, gardening has a positive impact on mental and physical health.
Getting started doesn't have to be expensive, but because this hack repurposes an item, it makes the hobby even more financially accessible — particularly for people who may not have their own land or a nearby community garden.
Plastic production is also contributing to a world overflowing in the material, sickening and killing wildlife as well as increasing the potential for flooding during extreme weather events, which have become more frequent and intense as a result of the warming planet.
Thankfully, some plastic egg cartons are recyclable, and this is yet another way to lessen the amount of material waste headed to landfills before cleaning and dropping the cartons at a local recycling facility if possible.
What everyone's saying
Other Instagrammers were excited to try the hack for themselves.
"This is a great idea, Fanny," one person wrote. "I wonder if I could winter sow in them."
"Absolutely! I think it'll be a great eggperiment!" the original poster confirmed.
"I love reusing egg cartons for starting seeds! They're perfect for it!" another person shared.
"Love everything repurposed!" someone else wrote.
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