Essential 65p cupboard staple can stop killer white mould on plants and improve growth
As the weather slowly starts to get warmer and the sun is finally shining, you might be spending more time outdoors in your garden or on your balcony.
But your space of tranquillity might be looking a bit worse for wear if it hasn't been tended to until now.
If you decide to plant some new flowers or greenery, it's worth not letting them go to waste by caring for them properly and helping their chances of surviving for longer.
Luckily, even the least green-fingered among us can follow some simple steps to keep plants healthy - and one includes using a 65p cupboard staple that can stop them from being plagued by infection.
White mould growing on the soil of a fig plant© Getty Images/iStockphotoThis National Gardening Week, property experts Savoy Stewart have shared three easy ways you can treat your plant's soil, with ingredients you might already have at home.
While gardening expert Julie Kendall, from The Eden Project, explains why now is the perfect time to start planting your own back garden vegetables.
Household items to rescue plants
1. Cinnamon
You might use cinnamon to add flavour to meals and for baking, but it can also be used in the garden.
Studies have found that the 65p ingredient can be used to treat mould on plants - which can happen in the early spring period when white mould can infect plants.
White mould is a disease that causes wilt and the death of many common flowers.
Meanwhile, cinnamon also helps protect seedlings against rot, which can also accelerate growth.
To treat plant mould, all you need to do is take one teaspoon of ground cinnamon and let it sit for a few hours in five litres of warm water.
Your cinnamon fungicide will be ready once this is complete.
For seedlings, you don't need to prepare the solution, just simply sprinkle some ground cinnamon directly onto the seedlings, and let it get to work.
2. Coffee grounds
Coffee, which can be as cheap as £1.99, can be essential for our daily morning routines, and the same can be applied to our plants.
Plants such as roses and tomatoes thrive best in acidic soil, and coffee grounds can help to achieve this.
You can either sprinkle the used grounds over the surface of the soil, or you can make coffee and pour it onto your soil.
Soak up to six cups of used coffee grounds for up to a week to make garden coffee, then you can use it to give your plants some care.
3. Using eggshells
If you're the proud owner of plants and vegetables that prefer less acidic soil, using eggshells could be the answer. This includes plants such as soybeans and lentils.
Instead of throwing the eggshells in the bin, simply clean them out and crush them among the soil.
As well as lowering the acidity of your soil, it provides plants with the essential nutrient of calcium.
Growing your own vegetables
If you're now feeling especially garden-savvy, you could turn your hand to planting your own vegetables, with spring being the perfect time.
The Eden Project's Living Landscapes Manager, Julie Kendall, suggests starting out with three favourites - bell peppers, potatoes, and carrots.
She told Savoy Stewart: "Now is the time to start sowing crops.
Men busy planting young carrots in his vegetable garden on a sunny day© Getty Images"Some harder crops, such as carrots and peas, can be sown directly into the ground outside.
"Tender crops, like sweetcorn and courgettes, will do better in a greenhouse, shed with windows or sunny windowsill. You don't necessarily need to have a dedicated vegetable plot if space is limited.
"Vegetables, fruit and herbs can be mixed together along garden borders, like a potager garden, and many can also be grown in pots, such as salad leaves and radish."
Here is how...
1. Bell peppers
It's important to use the correct fertiliser when it comes to growing your own bell peppers.
A fertiliser which is low in nitrogen should be used in order to ensure the rate of growth isn't stunted.
Alongside this, companion plants can also be crucial to plants thriving. Bell peppers reportedly thrive well around cucumbers and carrots, but less so around cabbage family plants.
2. Potatoes
Spring is the ideal time to plant potatoes because they prefer slightly cooler weather.
But it is important to make sure you are planting certified seed potatoes to avoid starting off with any nasty diseases.
Growing potatoes requires a bit of attention as you have to water them consistently with about one to two inches per week. And you must grow them in acidic and well-drained soil whilst in full sunlight.
Additionally, ensure you are covering the potatoes with soil or mulching heavily so that the skin does not turn green.
3. Carrots
Carrots require particular conditions to grow. They begin as tiny seeds, which shouldn't be planted too deep, and then take up to three weeks to germinate in moist soil.
To achieve this, the best way is to sprinkle the seeds on the surface of the soil and then lightly brush the soil up with your fingers.
Once growing, it's important to thin the sprouts - removing any extra sprouts so that each carrot has one to two inches of space around it to grow.
If you don't do this step, then it could stunt their growth.
Story by Saffron Otter : Mirror