Garden enthusiasts are excited about a new viral tip that promises to make plants grow faster – by simply using an everyday item from your fruit bowl.
Carmen Johnston, a gardening expert from New York, USA, has taken the internet by storm with her innovative use of banana peel water as a homemade fertilizer.
Carmen recently shared her unique gardening hack on social media, highlighting its effectiveness in encouraging the growth of herbs, flowers, vegetables and tomatoes.
The secret ingredient? Banana peel residues, which the gardener insists have ‘transformed’ parts of her garden, including a significant increase in herb growth.
Carmen posted a photo of her flowering herb garden on her Facebook page in June and revealed her gardening secret, saying: ‘I want to share a tip with everyone. I feed them banana peel water.”
Carmen Johnston, a gardening expert from New York, USA, has taken the internet by storm with her innovative use of banana peel water as a homemade fertilizer
The secret ingredient? Banana peel residue, which gardener claims has ‘transformed’ parts of her garden, including a significant increase in herb growth
In her after, she described the simple method: ‘Take two banana peels and soak them overnight in a liter of water. Water your plants with banana peel water. It’s full of potassium and more.
The expert explained that the solution can be used on flowers and herbs and does not need to be kept in the refrigerator.
‘I always leave the jug running and keep adding water as I finish it. I also throw peels in when I eat them.’
‘The peels will turn brown and you can throw them away after adding more peels. It is a great organic fertilizer. This is good for vegetables, herbs, flowers and tomatoes.’
Carmen also shared the impressive results she has seen in her garden: ‘I also use it on my green pepper. My spearmint plant is also huge, and so is my dill, which is waist high. I have tons of green cherry tomatoes and beautiful green peppers.”
Her post quickly attracted attention and collected more than 2,000 comments from gardening enthusiasts eager to try the hack – while some confirmed the solution’s effectiveness and claimed they ‘swear’ by it for growing herbs.
One person wrote: ‘Yes, finally a use for the bananas I bought; looked at it but didn’t eat,” while another said: “Thanks, my basil needs something!!!!”
A third said: ‘That’s exactly what I use and it’s fantastic for my basil,’ while another confirmed: ‘I swear by them and I bury them in the ground too.’
Carmen recently shared her unique gardening hack on social media, highlighting its effectiveness in encouraging the growth of herbs, flowers, vegetables and tomatoes
Her post quickly attracted attention and collected more than 2,000 comments from garden enthusiasts eager to try the hack – while some confirmed the tip’s effectiveness
Not everyone was completely sold, however, as some commenters sounded a note of caution about using regular banana peels, while others emphasized the importance of diluting the solution to avoid potential plant damage.
One person wrote: ‘I would say use organic banana peels. Regular peels contain a lot of pesticides.’
Another said: ‘My mother followed this advice and burned the roots of all her plants. You MUST dilute the solution.’
Meanwhile, a TikTok user has detailed how would-be gardeners can grow their own lifetime supply of fresh herbs using cheap packets you can buy at the supermarket.
Martha, who shares gardening tips with her 212,800 followers, filmed the process from start to finish using a small packet of chopped rosemary she bought from her local Waitrose.