Use TikTok's Clever Hack To Give Your Floppy Plants Extra Support

It's easy to get carried away in the garden when all your plants are tiny seeds. But once they have growth spurts and flop over, you realize just how many stakes and supports you need to keep everything standing up. You only have so many twist ties from sliced bread on hand, and buying garden ties can get annoying and expensive as your garden grows. Luckily, there's a nifty trick on TikTok that will give you a near-endless supply of garden ties that doubles as a handy way to recycle plastic bags you've accumulated.

You'll enjoy this one if you're a fan of garden hacks and DIY-ing everything. It's fast and easy and will allow you to restock your ties in just a minute or so. You'll be able to use them on any plant and make them any size you want, so it's a flexible trick you can use however you need.

This is the project for you if you have a cabinet full of plastic bags from the grocery store. Take a bag, flatten it out, and fold it or roll it up lengthwise. Cut off the bottom and the handles, and then cut 1-inch strips. Open up the strips to reveal a ring, then cut it into pieces according to your desired size. You can use an entire strip for large plants, make two for medium, or three, possibly four, for smaller plants. The number of ties you can get out of a bag will depend on the size of the bag.

Grocery bags aren't the only bag you can use for this. Any plastic bag will do, so you can turn your shopping trip from the mall into an environmentally friendly DIY session when you're done, or use clean leftover zipper freezer bags. You can also use paper bags, though you may want to cut thinner strips to keep the bag flexible enough to tie. Cut different sizes of strips and keep them with your other garden tools so you can easily access them while you're gardening and not have to bring out the scissors every time.