‘Don’t throw away tea bags’ as they have little-known ‘pretty’ use

People could repurpose their tea bags into a ‘beautiful’ decoration using a gardener’s tip. Simon Akeroyd, the author and gardening expert behind over 30 books, shared the suggestion in a popular TikTok video.

As an experienced head gardener and the owner of Simon Akeroyd’s Gardening Academy, Simon has amassed millions of followers across his social media channels, including over 800k followers on TikTok. Taking to the platform under the username @Simonakeroydgardener, the expert demonstrated how to create floral bookmarks with colourful flowers and leaves picked from the garden using tea bags.

Captioning his video, Simon said: “Instead of throwing away your tea bags, you can make them into floral bookmarks. You can use traditional tea bags or herbal tea bags. However you need the type of teabags that are folded (usually have string attached) as you need to be able to unfold them. The round or pyramid teabags won’t work as they can’t be unfolded.

“Once you’ve opened the tea bag, rinse and dry and then cover surface with a mix of glue and water. Stick pressed flowers onto one half of the teabag and then fold over. Leave to dry. You now have a beautiful floral bookmark which you can use in your favourite gardening books.”

The idea delighted viewers, racking up over 26k likes. Replying to the viral video, one fan said: “That’s so creative, thanks a lot for the idea.” A second viewer wrote: “That’s beautiful.”

A third social media user wrote: “What a lovely idea.” Someone else thought: “Wow! You are a garden genius. If not for the teabag, I would laminate it,” and a fan praised: “They are so pretty.”

However, it’s not to only way gardeners can repurpose tea bags. In another popular post, the gardening expert told viewers: “Most (but not all) tea bags cannot be composted.

“Which is a shame. This is because the bags themselves don’t decompose. (They contain micro plastics). However there is no need to chuck the entire tea bag into land fill.”

Simon continued: “Instead, split the tea bags open and tip out the spent tea leaves. Dried tea leaves are high in tanin and it is said to help reduce slug and snail damage. (Don’t rely on this though, but it might work if combined with other techniques). They also contain some plant nutrients so can be used to improve the fertility of the soil. Dried tea leaves also make a good soil conditioner.”

Replying to the post, a viewer named Monty asked: “Is this ok for indoor plants as well?” Simon replied: “Hi Monty, yes ideal for indoor / house plants too.”

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