A popular gardener is showing Instagrammers how to grow cucumbers more efficiently.
Jil Hinds (@thepinkjardin), who has 84,300 followers and gives tips related to gardening, lifestyle, and wellness, has posted a Reel demonstrating an easy way to grow cucumbers more efficiently.
The scoop
The video begins with Hinds explaining how "cucumbers, just like tomatoes, have suckers." She goes on to tell viewers that finding the sucker and removing it will lead to more fruitful cucumber plants.
Getting rid of the sucker allows the plants to put their energy into producing more fruit and fewer leaves, which is definitely good if you love cucumbers.
How it's helping
Cultivating your own food in a garden has many benefits. For one, you can save money and time, especially considering how your garden is probably much closer than the closest market that sells cucumbers and other produce.
But the benefits go well beyond our wallets and our clocks.
The use of environmentally harmful plastic packaging is prevalent in store-bought produce like cucumbers, varying depending on where you live and where you prefer to shop.
In the United States, approximately 40 million tons of plastic waste are discarded annually, but only a paltry 5% is recycled, a process that also contributes to air pollution due to the energy required for recycling.
Growing your own food avoids the environmental problems associated with packaging, and it also requires exercise, which is beneficial to our health. But disregarding exercise, just the simple fact of being surrounded by plants has been found to boost our well-being.
What everyone's saying
Instagram users had plenty to say.
"They are sneaky little guys," one person wrote, referring to the suckers.
"Thank you. I didn't know. My cucumbers are slow this year. I'm going to get those suckers today," another added.
Someone also expressed how this is "good to know -and a lovely garden you have!"
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