The next time you’re about to throw out a tea bag or your tea leaves, hold onto it!
Believe it or not, there are countless different uses for tea remains, ranging from beauty-related to health-related.
So when you drink your tea, save your bags and leaves and use these awesome tea hacks!
1. Retain Water and Dirt In Pots
Tea bags are able to keep water in plant pots for longer. Just use them to line the bottom of your container!
You can also “plant” these bags in holes in the soil in order to ensure moist roots during transplants or when planting new seeds.
2. Fertilizer
A wide variety of plants love tea as a fertilizer – mainly those that can thrive safely in acidic soil, since tea is often an acidic drink.
Just use black tea leaves, still damp, and mix them into soil. You can also gently spread them across the bottom of a plant.
A lot of houseplants and garden plants will benefit from the nitrogen boost and rich nutrients, even ones like roses!
3. Get Rid Of Fungus
Dilute some leftover tea, or dunk your old tea leaves in some water, and you can create a nice homemade anti-fungus spray.
Spritz some over your plants and the antifungal abilities of the tea will keep your plants free of pesky fungi. The best options are brewed black tea and chamomile tea!
4. Compost
If your tea bags are biodegradable, just chuck them into your compost pile! This means muslin and paper varieties are good to go.
If they’re not biodegradable, just cut them open and pour out the tea leaves inside for the same purpose.
Remember to make sure you get rid of any staples before using biodegradable tea bags.
5. Fill Holes In Your Lawn
A patchy lawn isn’t pleasant to look at. Before pouring new grass seed over the bald spots, soak them in brewed tea.
You can also plant old tea bags with brand new grass seed if you like. This helps because tea bags have great moisture and loads of nutrients that promote growth.
6. Kill Weeds
You can use loose extra tea leaves or a tea bag to make an efficient weed killer.
Black tea can be placed directly on leaves, or steeped with orange rind and vinegar as a spray.
You can also use any tea, a citrus juice, and water, mixing together for the perfect weed-busting recipe.
7. Pets Repellant
Cats, rodents, slugs, and most bugs don’t enjoy the smell of tea that much, so laying dried leaves, or a tea bag that you’ve cut open and is still moist, around can keep them at bay.
8. Germinate Seeds
You can use a tea bag to germinate a seed! Slide open damp tea bags, put a seed inside, and lay them out in direct sunlight to watch them grow amazingly.
9. Treatment
Being outside means being susceptible to bites, stings, and rashes. You can treat insect bites and stings with cooled off bags of tea to relieve inflammation and pain.
You can do the same for sunburn and poison ivy treatment, or add tea to lukewarm bath water and soak it up.