Turn A Pencil Holder Into A Garden Essential Against Pests

We may receive a commission on purchases made from links.

Gardening season sometimes lends itself to the familiar frustration of your tiny seedlings or precious roots being snatched and eaten up by curious critters. When you're fighting moles and gophers underground, you might want to consider a more low-cost solution that's hiding in an unlikely place: your office drawer or desk. Repurposing common household items for your yard and in your garden is more than a clever solution. This hack in particular can also protect your precious plants from pests without the need for harmful pesticides. Using a mesh pen or pencil holder can be a practical barrier in your garden and help secure your young plants against pests.

The secret behind these great little holders is their metal mesh, which is a bit similar to gopher wire. The pencil holder keeps your plant safely inside it and blocks those burrowing pests from accessing the roots to eat them or take them from under the ground. They work well for excluding pests in gardens overrun with a lot of gophers. The metal is also strong and can withstand elements outdoors to keep your garden secure and growing. One of the best benefits is how cheap they are to get, like these QYH 6-Pack Mesh Pencil Holders for example, under $10, which can be helpful when exploring budget friendly ways to elevate your outdoor areas and help your garden thrive. Another benefit of these mesh holders is that they provide eco-friendly pest control, reducing the need for chemical sprays that can damage your soil or other insects that are beneficial to plants. 

There are many other ways you can repurpose pen and pencil holders in your home as well. For this particular hack, take your metal mesh holder and grow or place your seedling or young plant inside. In your garden, dig a hole deep enough so you can place the holder partially underground, but with the top edge above soil level. The underground collar around your plant or seedlings works like a plant barrier. It will stop critters from being able to tunnel into the root zone. The plants roots can still expand through all of the little holes underneath, allowing your plant to grow freely. 

This method is especially useful for new seedlings, bulbs, or shoot vegetables, like amaranth (Amaranthus cruentus), that the burrowing animals may target. The mesh from the holder protects the roots on a per-plant scale. You can get yourself some of these mesh holders in differing sizes and shapes to fit your garden plants more specifically, if you wish. If you have bigger potted plants with large roots, you can use a similar method of digging a hole to fit the pot, as long as their are root and drainage holes for it to continue growing. You can also complement your pencil-holder guards with larger mesh, cages, or netting over the tops of your plants for additional protection from pests.