Gardener shares 16p hack that encourages her flowers to grow big with bright blooms – and it helps fertilises the soil

GETTING your five a day is great for your health but it turns out that it could be good for your garden.

It’s after one gardening guru revealed how they use leftovers to get their garden in full bloom – and it costs just 16p.

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For anyone who wasn’t already sold, you can even use the same piece of fruit multiple ways.

Posting in the Gardening UK – Hints, tips & advice group, green-fingered Facebook user Carol Murray explained how she regularly reuses her leftovers.

Rather than throwing her banana skins in the food waste bin, the gardening whizz will use them to get better blooms and soil by making them into a ‘soup’.

Sharing a photo of the peels steeping in a large pot of water, she told the group: “I’ve made banana soup for my raised bed [and] have diluted it.”

While we would necessarily recommend eating this soup, the water will be packed with potassium and magnesium – key micronutrients for plant grown and reproduction.

The added nutrients will also help your plants be more resilient against pests and disease, instead of just being left to rot in a landfill.

If you are tempted to make your own banana soup, the Fabulous team have come up with a simple recipe that you can use every spring.

Simply, cut several banana peels into pieces (ideally, 2.5 cm – 5cm wide) and add them to a large covered pot of water.

Let the mix steep for 2-3 days before straining the liquid into a large jar or spray bottle.

You can then add the soup to your plants, pouring a little of the mix around the base of each one so it soaks down into the roots.

Even better, you can even add the leftover peel to your compost heap or use them in garden, just as Carol did.

She added: “I put the banana skins on my raised beds or my compost.”

Not only will these hacks use every single part of the fruit, you can pay as little as 16p for this hack (yes, you read that right).

Right now, Aldi have a pack of five bananas for just 78p, meaning each piece of fruits costs just 16p and can be used in your garden once you’ve finished snacking.

As the hack went viral in the group, others revealed that they’d also tried this tip and it had worked in their gardens too.

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One Facebook user wrote: “I put the whole skin in to an empty milk container 4 pint, fill with water and leave for a few days. Add some to watering can makes lovely feed for plants.”

There were also other ways people used the hack, with another member adding: “I put the banana skins in the blender with rain water and make a soup to pour on beds.”

Some even suggested burying the banana skin straight into the soil, saying: “I put the banana skins under a bit of soil and they love it.”

With all these hacks, your garden will be in full bloom in no time.

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