Admiring the flowers and herbs in a home garden is easy to do. The neater the colorful arrangements look, the more it should dawn on you that it didn’t happen without long days, hard effort, and a green thumb. This is even truer if the plants are in pots because they typically have to be repotted every so often, and this isn’t light work. It gets pretty messy — with the soil spilling everywhere and the roots being tangled and knotted. The whole process couldn’t get any more agonizing. That is until TikTok gardening enthusiast @my.plant.loving.life came up with a brilliant hack to make repotting your plants a breeze. All you need to do is wrap a pillowcase around the plant’s leaves to keep them tidy while you get on with the transplant process.
Repotting your house plants regularly is necessary because your plant is alive and kicking. The same way you grew out of your favorite onesie at age five is how plants outgrow their containers and need bigger ones with more space for water and nutrients to thrive. You don’t have to fret, though. A lot of plants won’t need repotting for years, but once that day finally rolls around, you want to see it through as seamlessly as possible. That’s where this brilliant hack comes in — letting you bypass the stressful parts. Before you know it, you’ll be done, dusted, and back on the sofa, chilling with your favorite bottle of wine.
Let an old pillowcase ease the burden of a rough repotting session
@my.plant.loving.life
Repotting trailing plants with pillowcase sleeve = leaves are clean + contained + manageable. Use sheet for really big guys! #planthacks #planthacksfyp #viningplants #beautifulplants #repottingplants
♬ original sound – Maria
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Repotting your plants sometimes requires you to clean the roots until they’re free of the old dirt before placing them in their new home. This allows you to expose the roots more for better absorption and prune away some dead or damaged roots. While doing this sounds tortuous and grubby, the TikTok hack by @my.plant.loving.life makes it several times easier — you only need an old pillowcase and some good scissors.
First, cut through the closed end of the pillowcase so you now have a sleeve. Fit the potted plant through it from the bottom and over its leaves, then tie it at the base of the plant where it meets the soil. Make sure the rest of the pillowcase is sheathed securely around the leaves. This will help keep them in one place and out of your face while you give the roots a good bath. Because you tied the other end of the pillowcase at the plant base, the roots will be just as organized, too. Now, you can cleanse and prune them before dropping them back into a new pot, still sheathed. Pat the roots dry with a cloth to prevent root rot before you fill up the new pot with enough dirt and remove the pillowcase. If your plant roots don’t need to be washed and the soil comes off easily with a few shakes, you can skip the washing entirely.
