Gardener Comes Up With a Fun And Eco-Friendly Way to Turn Amazon Delivery Boxes Into Planters

Every once in a while, it strikes, the shopping spree. We pick up our phones and shop to our heart's content on Amazon. As orders start arriving, the house becomes a shanty of delivery boxes. They first appear in a small stack, then a towering pile. By the time the shopping spirit finally leaves, the house has already been buried under mountains of cardboard boxes, so many that even the dumpster would fall short of space. Thankfully, TikTok gardener Joe’s Garden (@joesgarden) knows the trick that will slash this boxy mountain in one, maybe three, strokes of hand.

In this video, Joe revealed a brilliant hack he uses to repurpose all those Amazon delivery boxes and sweep away the towering, dusty stack to free up your house’s space. He suggested that gardeners create “Zero waste cardboard pots,” which take no more than five minutes. “Next time you get a delivery, instead of just throwing away the cardboard, remove any of the plastic packaging and soak in some fresh water for about 10 minutes,” Joe told the viewers while standing in between groves of lush garden plants with several brown cardboard boxes. He flipped the boxes one by one and peeled away all the plastic tapes.

Continuing, Joe brought in a big black bucket filled with water and dipped a folded box inside, until fully immersed. “Once soaked, remove the damp cardboard and trim into strips, just like this, while the cardboard is still nice and damp. Wrap it around a jar or tin, making sure to push the bottom down hard,” he explained, and pulled out the drippy cardboard from the bucket. In the next step, he trimmed the cardboard with scissors and wrapped a large-sized strip around a plastic jar, tucking the bottom folds inside to seal the base.

He created several such cardboard jars and strapped a rubber band around each, and left them to dry on a garden ledge. “Pop over an elastic band and leave these somewhere nice and warm to dry. After a few hours, you'll have these perfect little eco-friendly pots, which can be used to start seeds and planted out whole to avoid root disturbance,” he explained.

Once the rolled cardboards were dried and sculpted into cylindrical shapes, he flipped them upside down. The jars tucked inside dropped down, leaving empty cardboard containers. Joe filled these rolled cardboards with mulch, all the while sprinkling seeds and saplings. He embedded a cardboard planter inside a large planting tray and enshrouded it with more mulch and soil with the help of a shovel.

In the caption, he told the viewers that this “Amazon boxes gardening hack” is “a super quick and easy way to up-cycle those pesky cardboard boxes from online deliveries, and turn them into the most amazing little DIY garden pots, which are ideal for starting seeds in.” The insanely simple strategy impressed his fellow gardeners, who gaggled into the video’s comment section to write compliments and add insights. Many of them called the trick with adjectives like “brilliant,” “genius,” and “amazing.”

“Aagh! Another great thing I have to find the time to do,” commented @lindaja. @liz said, “That’s actually really clever!” @botoxbandit shared they use egg cartons instead of Amazon delivery boxes to sow seeds. @sav wrote, “I love using cardboard, paper egg cartons, and toilet paper rolls to build up my pots/planters so I don’t spend a fortune on soil.”

You can follow Joe’s Garden (@joesgarden) on TikTok for wondrous gardening hacks and tips.