4 ways to reuse old loo rolls in your garden

Garden experts have revealed four ways you can reuse old toilet roll tubes in your garden and make your garden more sustainable this autumn.

While you’re probably already recycling old toilet rolls, there are plenty of ways to recycle toilet rolls in a garden to save money and benefit your garden.

Sustainable gardening has been a huge garden trend, and using old toilet rolls is one of the most affordable ways to achieve this. So, without further ado, here’s how experts say you can effectively turn toilet trash into garden treasure.

1. Make a bee hotel

If you want to attract more bees to your garden, the good news is that you can use old loo rolls to craft a bee hotel, giving them somewhere safe to shelter.

‘Cardboard toilet roll tubes can be used alongside other recycled materials to create a bee hotel for your garden. Place toilet roll tubes inside of a larger, waterproof container, like a tin can or plastic milk bottle,’ says Richard Barker, horticultural expert and commercial director of LBS Horticulture.

‘Stuff the hollow centres of the tubes with nesting materials, such as twigs, paper straws or reeds. The finished hotel should be hung in a sunny, sheltered area of your garden.’

2. Make seed starters

Toilet rolls make great DIY seed starters, as they are biodegradable and won’t damage your soil’s health once planted out. In fact, loo roll holders can also be composted in your garden.

‘Empty toilet rolls make good little pots for seedlings, especially for plants that don’t like having their roots disturbed too much when they’re moved. Stand the cardboard tubes upright in a tray, fill them with seed compost and sow as normal. The tube is deep enough to give young roots somewhere to grow, and when the seedling is ready to go outside you can plant the whole thing straight into the soil,’ says Dr Russell Sharp, founder of Eutrema.

‘The cardboard will gradually break down in the ground while the roots grow through it so there’s less handling at the point when the plant is still quite delicate. I particularly like this for things such as sweet peas or beans, which can quickly produce longer roots. Broad beans are the classic crop that gardeners have traditionally sown in toilet rolls because they develop long roots and don’t benefit from being disturbed.

‘Planting the whole tube into the ground helps the young plants establish without root damage, which can give autumn-sown broad beans a better chance of coping through winter. Just make sure the tube is damp before planting it out and bury the top edge below soil level. If dry cardboard is left sticking above the surface, it can draw moisture away from the compost around the seedling.’

3. Feed earthworms

I’ll bet this isn’t one you thought of. But you can use old toilet tubes to feed earthworms in your garden. This is a good idea because worms can help enhance soil fertility, aeration and water drainage – they’re a vital part of your garden’s ecosystem.

‘Toilet roll tubes can be used to feed earthworms in your garden because worms need a balanced diet of green waste and carbon. As cardboard is primarily made from wood fibres, this is a good source of carbon for worms that they can break down into castings for your garden,’ says Richard.

‘In worm bins or compost heaps, rotting food scraps can make the environment acidic. Adding cardboard, which is usually neutral or slightly alkaline, can aid with buffering or neutralising excess acidity to keep the environment hospitable for worms.’

4. Protect young plants

You can also use toilet roll holders to help protect young seedlings from pests when they’re first planted out in your garden.

‘You can also cut toilet rolls into shorter rings and place them around very young seedlings as a simple physical barrier. Push the bottom centimetre or two into the soil so the ring stays in place, leaving enough height above ground to protect the stem. It’s good for when you’ve just planted out tender young plants and want to give them a bit of protection,’ says Dr Russell.

‘The collar creates a clear boundary around a seedling that would otherwise be very easy to miss, especially in a busy vegetable bed. It won’t make the plant completely slug-proof, so I wouldn’t rely on it as your only defence, but it can make it harder for pests to reach the stem immediately and buys the seedling a little time to establish. The cardboard will eventually soften and break down, so you don’t have to remember to remove it later in the season.’

Next time you so your business, instead of putting your loo roll tube straight into the recycling bin, consider how it can benefit your garden instead.