Repurpose Empty Pet Food Bags To Make Planting A Tree A Breeze

Although there are some factors to keep in mind, like the trimming and care required or root growth, adding trees to your yard can transform your landscape. Trees provide both shade and privacy, making them a great choice to help create a DIY privacy nook, while also supporting your backyard's ecosystem. Despite the many benefits that come with adding a tree to your landscaping, planting trees can be a messy, labor-intensive job — which is where this clever tree planting comes in handy. All you need are some large feed bags, like those you get for dog food or chicken feed.

Planting takes careful planning to avoid problems down the road. Most important is planting your sapling at the right depth. This means digging the right-sized hole which can involve some guesswork. You'll want to find the balance between planting too deep, which hinders respiration, or too close to the surface. Once it's time to refill the hole, particularly if it's too large, an empty pet food bag can work as a fast, handy earth mover. Just like using spare tarps, you can pile earth on a sturdy feed bag, move it around the yard as need, and refill your hole, all with one (or a few) repurposed bag. What's more there are a number of other yard-related activities for which the same bag can come in handy.

Reusing old pet food bags in your garden is a great way to cut down on waste, as well as save yourself time and money when it comes to buying a new tarp. Plus, if you have a pet food bag made of woven polypropylene (plastic), it can hold up longer and be reused again in your garden. The composite paper bags may not survive long-term use with wet soil.

All you need to do is cut the bag along its seam so it opens up and lays flat. If you're worried about any lingering feed residue, rinse and dry the bag before using. From there, as you're digging, place the soil directly onto the bag rather than on the ground. It will make transporting and refilling easier, and you won't be left with unrecoverable dirt in your grass or mulch. When it comes time to fill in the hole, you can easily press the soil back around your tree. You can even lift the bag and pour in the remaining dirt. If there's extra, it will be easy to use elsewhere in the yard. This hack can be helpful when planting trees but also other plants in your yard where large amounts of digging are involved, such as shrubs. Then just fold up your bag (or rinse and dry it first) and stash it for the next time.

Repurposing an old pet food bag is just one way to reduce waste while elevating your garden further. You can transform an old plastic kiddie pool into a simple container garden or even use household items to replace the essential tools for gardening that you may not have on hand.