20 Best Gardening Hacks for a Spectacular Harvest

Whether it is your first time growing a garden or you've been a gardener since childhood, these gardening hacks are a must.

I love that this list has something for every level of gardener.

Plus, it has some fun ideas that just add beauty or fun to your garden experience. 

Jump to:

• Best Gardening Hacks for a Spectacular Harvest
• Save Your Coffee Grounds for Your Garden
• Keep Eggshells for Use in Your Garden
• Bookmark These Vintage Gardening Hacks
• Make Garden Markers out of Painted Bricks
• Grow Plant Scraps in Water for All-New Plants
• Deter Birds with Bright Red in Your Garden
• Plant Fragrant Blossoms Around Your Mailbox
• Use a Laundry Basket to Grow Berries
• Rinse Vegetables in the Garden Right as You Pick Them
• Use a Hair Clip To Hold Your Headphones While Gardening
• Turn Old Jeans Into a Garden Apron
• Encourage Bees to Pollinate in Your Garden
• Store Seeds Year to Year in Old RX Bottles
• Add Fun Spaces for Your Pets in Your Garden
• Add Coffee Filters to The Bottom of Your Planters
• Watch for Sand When Digging a Garden
• Add Something Special For Your Kids in the Garden
• Create a Tunnel with Vegetable Vines
• Crochet Baskets for Your Garden Produce
• Don't Skip the Mulch in Your Garden

Best Gardening Hacks for a Spectacular Harvest

Turn that soil and those seeds into a spectacular harvest of vegetables or even fruits! While some individuals are naturally a bit better with gardening, that doesn't mean you can't learn something new. There are some fun ideas here to make your garden a true oasis.

Save Your Coffee Grounds for Your Garden

Coffee grounds are an excellent addition to your gardening routine. You can use them indirectly in your compost, fertilizer, or mulch. Plus, they are a wonderful deterrent to add around your garden edge to keep critters away from your plants. This is one of the best garden hacks that is practically free!

Learn more: 9 Inventive Ways to Use Coffee Grounds in Your Garden

Keep Eggshells for Use in Your Garden

Since my family eats so many eggs, it's easy to throw those eggshells right into the compost to help add richness to our natural fertilizers. That's not the only use for them!

We also save a few to use for starting seedlings in the springtime and to use as mulch around trees and bushes. They are a wonderful addition to our garden routine and even benefit the wildlife as many birds and wild animals will eat the shells instead of our garden.

Learn more: 9 Smart Ways to Use Eggshells in Your Garden

Bookmark These Vintage Gardening Hacks

I love this image! Straight from a 1955 gardening magazine, this has six excellent tips that worked then and will still work wonderfully today. I love that they recommend recycling things like jar lids, soda caps, and clothespins to use in the garden.

These are great tips to help save both time and money while you are working in your garden.

Make Garden Markers out of Painted Bricks

I love this idea! So cute and a great way to reuse the same thing over and over again. Simply paint a few bricks or concrete pieces white then stencil or paint on a vegetable shape to match what you planted.

At the end of the season, just brush the dirt off and store it until next year to reuse on your new garden.

Learn more: Reddit

Grow Plant Scraps in Water for All-New Plants

One of my favorite hacks for gardening is to regrow vegetables from end pieces soaked in water! Tons of regular vegetables from the grocery store can be regrown with fresh new produce just by placing the root into water.

This is one of my favorite ways to regrow lettuce, onions, and other small vegetables or herbs.

Learn more: 27 Plants and Fruits You Can Grow in Water

Deter Birds with Bright Red in Your Garden

This hack is all about training birds to not go after your red fruits and vegetables. They will try to peck at the rock or ornament, and the result is unpleasant so they don't do it again.

If you are growing strawberries or tomatoes, this is a great choice to help save them from birds.

To save your strawberries, you can just hand paint strawberries on rocks and place them in the garden before the real strawberries are ripe. Tutorial here

Plant Fragrant Blossoms Around Your Mailbox

This fun little idea is a great way to add beauty to your yard and mailbox while also working on your green thumb. This individual added jasmine around their bricked mailbox. The smell is wonderful when blooming, and really update the look of an ordinary mailbox.

Learn more: Reddit

Use a Laundry Basket to Grow Berries

I am in love with this hack! Fill a laundry basket with soil and utilize the existing holes for growing plants. This works best with berries, but can also be used for a number of plants. Add in flowers, potatoes, strawberries, and even peppers to this basket and create a pretty and useful addition to your garden.

Learn more: DIYnCrafts.com

Rinse Vegetables in the Garden Right as You Pick Them

This hack is a great way to keep the mess out of your kitchen! Take a bucket and a small basket with holes or laundry basket to the garden when you go to pick vegetables. Drop the veggies into the basket and then dunk it into the larger bucket of water to rinse off the extra dirt and grime. Then you can just carry the clean vegetables right into your kitchen.

Use a Hair Clip To Hold Your Headphones While Gardening

If you like to listen to music while you garden, you may find your headphones slip off when you bend over the plants. Just use a hair clip to hold them on your head while you work. They stay in place, and you get to sing along with your favorite music while weeding plants!

Learn more: Reddit

Turn Old Jeans Into a Garden Apron

Have an old pair of blue jeans that are too small or have holes in them? Turn them into an easy useful garden apron with just a few cuts of your scissors. This can be done completely no-sew, or you can add a few extra additions like a fabric top or a pretty belt if you wish.

Learn more: Reddit

Encourage Bees to Pollinate in Your Garden

Bees are so needed to continue pollinating your plants! Designate at least one area of your garden or yard for wildflowers and plant growth just for the bees to enjoy each year. I love this cute little sign added to this yard to remind others to leave the bees alone. Don't fear bees! They are wonderful for your garden and our daily life.

Learn more: Reddit

Store Seeds Year to Year in Old RX Bottles

Instead of throwing away those old prescription medication bottles, peel the label off, clean them out well, and use to store seeds. This is great, especially, if you are saving heirloom seeds year after year. Just make sure you add a label telling you what the seeds are so you know when time to plant the next year. Interested in other fun uses? Here you'll find 35 other ways to use empty pill bottles.

Add Fun Spaces for Your Pets in Your Garden

This is such an adorable little video of pets enjoying some water in the garden! While this was probably staged for the video, I highly recommend adding a space in your garden for your pets.

A nice cool dirt space for dogs to dig and lounge, or a small sprinkler for them to enjoy on hot days is nice. You can also plant some catnip for the kitties or add a birdbath and bird feeder for the wildlife in your garden.

Add Coffee Filters to The Bottom of Your Planters

This hack is something I love! Add coffee filters into the bottom of your planters before adding soil. They allow water to soak through, but keep the soil in the pot rather than falling out through the holes. This saves your outdoor space and is ideal for keeping mud out of your house if you have indoor plants.

Watch for Sand When Digging a Garden

When you start digging your garden, if you come across sand under the dirt in what seems like an unlikely place, it may be an indicator that there are underground cables or pipes. Sand is rare to find under layers of dirt unless it is covering something buried.

Note: You should also always call local utility companies before taking on any big project in your yard to make sure all lines are marked for your safety.

Add Something Special For Your Kids in the Garden

This is a wonderful example of adding a beautiful addition to your garden that is ideal for kids. I am a huge advocate of having kids involved in gardening. There is no better way to do that than to encourage them by making their own garden oasis.

Learn more: Reddit

Create a Tunnel with Vegetable Vines

This is such a fun idea! This person built an awning out of wire and then planted gourds along the edges so the fines would trail upwards and over creating an arbor of sorts. You can do this with green beans, gourds, peas, and any plant that has long tendrils and vines.

Learn more: Reddit

Crochet Baskets for Your Garden Produce

What a fun idea! This person crochet a little basket to help hold a watermelon up on the vine! This is a great idea if you need to grow plants in a small space or in containers. It also keeps heavier plants from rotting on the bottom from always sitting in one spot against damp soil.

Source: Reddit

Don't Skip the Mulch in Your Garden

Gardening isn't just about putting seeds into the dirt. There are many pieces to the puzzle of how to make your garden produce large amounts of vegetables or fruits. Mulch around the plants is just one of the factors to consider, and there are a variety of options in this post to help you know how best to mulch around your garden.

Learn more: The Ultimate Guide to Mulching

Still want more gardening tips, tricks and life hacks? Check out our 100 expert gardening tips post.