For those of you who take gardening very seriously and take care of your plants like your children, here’s one baby product that can come in handy. It’s the baby powder! Besides being useful for babies, it has other uses that have nothing to do with babies. Baby powder can actually prove to be effective in combating pests and in making garden tools easier to use. Here are some effective uses of baby powder for your garden.
1. Protect The Roots
Sprinkling your flower bulbs, flowers, and plants with baby powder before planting them prevents the roots from rotting due to too much moisture and also provides a coat of protection against hungry mice. Place the bulbs in a large plastic zip-top bag, add in 3 tablespoons of baby powder, and then shake the bag to coat the flower bulbs. Then plant the bulbs whose roots won’t rot or be eaten by mice.
2. Prevent Sweat
Working in the garden can be quite tiring and can make you all sweaty. Sprinkling some baby powder can effectively prevent you from sweating excessively and avoid sweat stains on your clothes. You can also sprinkle baby powder on the underarms, collar, and other areas of your clothes that tend to get sweaty. After you sprinkle the baby powder on the clothes, press the clothing with an iron to set it and create an invisible barrier that absorbs moisture. This also helps you to wash the sweat easily and prevents it from staining your clothes.
3. Sprinkle On Garden Tools
Constant usage of your garden tools such as spades, shears, and shovels can cause calluses and painful blisters. Just coat the tools with baby powder to reduce friction. If you don’t use gloves while gardening, it can also prevent the tools from slipping while you use them just like gymnasts’ chalk. Sprinkle some baby powder over the handles of your garden tools to make them more gentle on your hands.
4. Deter Rabbits
Apart from bugs and pests, baby powder can also deter bunnies. Sprinkle some baby powder on young seeds and plants to deter rabbits from gnawing on your plants. The powder acts as a deterrent and makes your plants and flower bulbs undesirable for rabbits. Besides rabbits, the baby powder also prevents chipmunks and other nocturnal invaders.
5. Ward Off Bugs And Pests
Baby powder is also effective in repelling ants that crawl all over your garden. They may be useful in the garden, but once they enter your homes, they can be quite annoying. Sprinkle the baby powder like a barrier between your garden and your home to keep the ants from entering your home. Even bugs, like Japanese beetles, that devour your plants find the baby powder repulsive if you just sprinkle the powder on the leaves of the plants. Repeat the procedure if the powder is washed away by rains or garden sprinklers until the beetle season is over. Another pest that can be kept away is the aphid or plant lice. These parasitic plant killers share a symbiotic relationship with ants.
6. Tidy Up Your Dog
Dogs are playful and love to roll on the garden lawn. In the process, they get dirty and their fur may even pick up some hitchhikers in the form of ticks or other insects. Just sprinkle some baby powder on its fur and give it a good rub. Then, brush its fur to remove insects, dirt, excess oil, and foul odor.
7. Prevent Sticky Gloves
After a hard day’s labor in the garden, the gloves simply refuse to come off because of the sticky sweat. Just coat the insides of your gardening gloves with baby powder and it becomes easy to wear them and take them off. The baby powder also offers protection from itchy, sore post-gardening hands.
8. Keep Your Garden Boots Fresh
Just like your garden gloves, your garden boots too can end up smelly and sticky. Working in moist conditions makes your boots smell obnoxious. Sprinkle some baby powder in them before you wear them and repeat the process even after you take them off after using them. The baby powder absorbs sweat and keeps your shoes fresh by removing the moisture that causes mold and stinkiness.
9. Discourage Nocturnal Visitors
While rabbits and chipmunks generally visit your garden during the day, some nocturnal animals such as raccoons and opossums invade your garden during the night. They dig up your garden in search of edible flower bulbs and vegetables but can be easily discouraged by some baby powder. Sprinkle the baby powder in a circle around your vegetables as they hate the texture of the powder, which irritates their paws.
