TikTok's Clever Hack Only Requires Seed And Toilet Paper To Fix Up Empty Lawn Patches

Empty lawn patches are no fun, detracting from your otherwise beautiful yard. Thankfully, there is a popular hack that helps bring those dead patches back to life with just a little care, and it doesn't take much time, effort, or money to try it out. The spot treatment gaining popularity on TikTok is relatively easy. All you need is water, toilet paper, and grass seeds. The hack has no specific measurements for any of these ingredients, but the idea is to have enough thick wads of toilet paper coated in seeds and water to cover your spots with a healthy layer of the mixture, about an inch thick. 

After you sprinkle your wet toilet paper around, give it a few days and you should start seeing grass growing in no time, especially if you water your yard properly. The number of days the hack takes to work depends on the type of grass, as different species have various germination windows, but if you give it about a week, you should start to see evidence of grass sprouting. This method seems to work for a couple of reasons, namely keeping birds from eating all your grass before it has time to germinate, and helping the seeds stay moist.

The TikTok trend has grown popular, as many people who try this method have found it to work well. Even those who don't know much about plant care or keeping up a lawn find that this method helps to provide grass everywhere, even those difficult places that don't want to turn green normally. However, it's not a cure-all. While this hack is great for helping your grass grow again, if you want the yard to continue to thrive and prevent future dead patches, adding topdressing to your lawn is an essential step. 

While this method works, it isn't perfect. Some toilet paper, such as the kind regularly used in homes, isn't fully biodegradable and takes several years to break down, and also requires a lot of trees to be cut. A better alternative is to use different materials, such as rolls made from bamboo, hemp, sugarcane, or even recycled toilet paper, which are all more sustainable options. If you happen to have old newspapers lying around, that's also an option, and a way to reuse materials you already own so you don't need to go out to buy anything. Also, if you mow your lawn regularly, use your grass clippings instead of throwing them away to get a similar effect.

These alternatives still keep your seeds damp and stop birds from eating them all, and are also fully biodegradable. If you want a more "natural" solution, peat moss is another alternative. It helps to retain the moisture and stops hungry birds from eating up all the seed before they have time to grow. It's also insulating, helping to keep them a more consistent temperature, even on cooler nights. However, peat moss is a limited resource and incredibly important for carbon absorption and the environment, so an alternative like coconut coir might be a slightly better option.