The pro shared her cheap and easy method for the sustainable gardening hack.
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London (@gardeningsimplified) shared the gardening advice with over 700,000 TikTok followers.
She explained that the key to her secret was soil solarization.
“Really all this is is you’re using the sun’s energy to sterilize the soil,” she said.
“Between the heat and the sun’s energy, this will literally kill almost all diseases that could have been in your soil.”
She explained that once the solarization process was finished, minerals can be added back into the soil that it was missing.
“That’s still cheaper than buying potting soil,” she said.
The gardener demonstrated the process with some old soil and a blue tarp.
She dumped the potting soil onto the tarp, pulling out the soil from the previous roots, raking the soil evenly, and then covering it with a second tarp.
London recommended letting the soil sit for two to three weeks.
People took to the comments to share their thoughts.
“You mentioned adding minerals back in. Please share specifics,” requested one commenter.
“Npk nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, then micronutrients calcium, manganese, zinc, copper, iron, boron. The first 3 are the most important,” she replied.
Other pro gardeners offered additional advice for the tip.
“Love this method, specially for new beds,” said one.
“2 things — use a clear tarp and your soil temp has to get up to 110°f. Solarization only reaches the first 6”.”
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