A Simple Pencil Eraser Hack That'll Make Planting Flower Seeds Easier

Do you love gardening but wish you could enjoy an array of vibrant blooms without getting your hands dirty? Struggling to navigate common gardening mistakes and create a thriving garden? If so, you're not alone. While gardening will always require a bit of elbow grease (hello repotting, pruning, and watering) and trial and error, there are ways to make it easier, such as using a pencil eraser. That's right: you can use a simple pencil eraser for fast seed sowing — no dirty hands required. The process is simple, too. When it comes time to sow your seeds, you need to dig small cells within your chosen medium to drop the seeds into. These should be uniform in depth and distance to prevent seeds from overcrowding and encourage successful germination. By turning a pencil upside down and inserting the eraser into the soil, you can get the right sized holes every time without the need to dig or measure. From here, all you need to do is drop your seeds into your pencil-created holes, cover them with soil and water as needed, and then enjoy the experience of watching them grow. 

While using a pencil eraser can be great for quick and easy sowing, not every seed has the same needs. That's why the first step in using this pencil eraser hack is figuring out what exactly you want to plant. After all, you want to give your plants the best chance at germination and survival, and the best way to do that is to learn their needs in advance — including how deep and wide their cell needs to be.

Once you know how deep you should be planting your seeds, you can use your pencil eraser as a clever two-in-one tool that combines a ruler with a shovel. Smaller seeds might only need the pencil eraser up to the metal banding (the ferrule), while larger seeds may require that you insert the entire pencil eraser — ferrule and all. While this hack revolves around using the eraser and ferrule as a guide, you can use a ruler to mark further up on the pencil, helping you keep other helpful measurements in mind.

As far as width goes, a pencil eraser is just under ¼ inches wide. This makes it the perfect size for many seeds. However, you may encounter seeds that don't quite fit this size, either from being too large or too small. For larger seeds, there's an easy fix: you could swap your pencil for a wider writing utensil, or, after inserting your pencil to create a hole, move it in a circular motion to increase the width of the cell.

If you're dealing with extremely small seeds, you may want to skip this hack altogether. A pencil may create too deep of a cell for the seeds, preventing them from successfully germinating. Instead, try scatter-sowing small seeds for the best results.