Don't Throw Out Plastic Silverware — Utilize Them In Your Garden Instead

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If you regularly order delivery from your favorite restaurants, you probably have a whole drawer full of plastic forks and spoons in your kitchen. Throwing them away is wasteful, but keeping them takes up valuable space. Luckily, you can use your plastic silverware in many surprising and creative ways. Whether you have a small kitchen herb garden or a backyard flower or vegetable patch, put those plastic forks and spoons to work. 

Plastic spoons are one of many everyday kitchen tools that can double as garden gear. If you have just planted seeds, use the spoons as seed markers so that you can track which ones have germinated. Or, if you're sprouting multiple varieties of seedlings or have just planted a full herb garden, create plant markers by writing each plant's name on the back of a spoon with a fine-point Sharpie or using your label maker. 

If you recently used our hack for transforming an old wine rack into an herb garden, use plastic forks as stakes to train the herbs as they grow. They can also be used to support small flowers or plants that are in danger of drooping or breaking. Stick the handle in the soil or earth and carefully train the plants over the fork's tines. While you may need to replace them with larger stakes as the plants grow, forks are the perfect size for small flowers and new herb plantings.

You can also use plastic forks to keep away garden pests. Stick forks in pots, beds, or soil with the tines facing up, and you can keep rabbits and small rodents from destroying your plants. If you have a small dog that loves digging in your vegetable garden, you can use the forks to create a little fence around the garden bed. This may deter your dog, at least temporarily. 

Forks can also be used indoors to keep your cat from digging in your potted plants. Stick your forks into the pots, tines up, and they may block your cat's curious paws. You can also try putting the forks in the soil tines down and draping cheesecloth over the handles to keep your cat from getting to the soil without affecting soil aeration or ventilation. 

You don't have to stop with plastic utensils, either, as there are many creative ways to upcycle old kitchenware. For example, you can repurpose old wooden spoons in your garden by using them as plant markers, to create uniform holes for planting seeds, or as a small garden shovel. Even your old plastic or cardboard takeout containers can be used to start plant or herb seedlings indoors.