Cozy Little House

Small Space Living & Gardening

Garden Tip: Using Cinnamon In Your Garden

Filed Under: Gardening

Using cinnamon in your garden is cheap, non-toxic and smells good.

Today I’m going to give you a garden tip that uses the cinnamon in your kitchen.

We use cinnamon for baking. But there are other uses you might not know about. 

Cinnamon can be used to help root cuttings, to prevent fungus from killing small seedlings, and for keeping pests away. 

Now hopefully you will think twice before you go in the garage and grab some chemicals off the shelf.

Ant Deterrent:

I use cinnamon to deter ants. You see, they do not like to cross a line of cinnamon. It won’t kill them, but it will deter them from where you don’t want them to go.

You can do this inside or outside. Find where they’re entering and sprinkle cinnamon right in their path in a straight line.

If the line has holes in it, they are likely to crawl through those holes. So make sure your line of cinnamon doesn’t have gaps.

Cinnamon To Root New Plants:

Apply cinnamon to the stem when you are planting a cutting. It will stimulate growth in nearly every plant variety. 
 
There is really no need for those hormone agents they sell in the store. Pour a spoonful of cinnamon onto a paper towel and roll dampened stems in the cinnamon. 
 
Plant the stems in fresh potting soil. The cinnamon will encourage the stem to produce even more stems, while helping to prevent the fungus that causes damping-off disease. 
 
Damping-off disease is a fungus-related problem that hits small vulnerable seedlings as they begin to grow. 

When next you have any of these problems, try cinnamon first instead of chemicals.

You will not have to worry about children or pets being near something that might harm them as you do when chemicals are used. And you’re helping the environment at the same time.

Do you have any other tips for using cinnamon?

 

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  3. Who knew?

    I will have to try this.

    My main issue in my garden is water. We have buckets in the shower to save as it heats up and we then use that to water the garden. "they" are saying we will run out of water in California in 1 year!

  5. That's a great tip. I'm going to go try it, because I have those rotten little fire ants, on the rim of a couple of beds, and I can't get to my tomatoes. I've tried washing them with a hose first, but that does nothing .If some of those bite me I get a painful rash that last weeks.

  6. I know cinnamon is very good for the human body.. Have tried it for ants but it didn't work in my kitchen.. I use liquid dish soap the same way. That works better for me.. It's messy though.
    Your tip about using it on cuttings will be tried here.. Thank you for sharing these tips.
    Charlotte

  7. Those are some great ways to use cinnamon. I never knew that about it. The only other way I've used it before (besides baking) is to boil the sticks as a way to scent a room. I love the smell of cinnamon!

  8. I haven't heard of this either. Saw some fire ants outside the other night, will have to try this. Love making a pot of cinnamon sticks and oranges and other spices on the stove, smells so good.

  14. I had no idea cinnamon could be used for rooting, My mom has some plants I want to get cuttings of, I'll have to give it a try!

  15. I've heard of some of those garden hints before, and keep forgetting to use cinnamon in my cuttings…thanks for the reminder. We heard about soaking a cinnamon stick in water and then spraying it all around to keep the stray cats away…will let you know how that works for us in a few days.

    Jen

  16. I've heard of some of those garden hints before, and keep forgetting to use cinnamon in my cuttings…thanks for the reminder. We heard about soaking a cinnamon stick in water and then spraying it all around to keep the stray cats away…will let you know how that works for us in a few days.

    Jen

  17. Thanks for all of the great info about cinnamon, Brenda. I will be putting this new knowledge of cinnamon to good use…. Hope Abi is feeling better today!

  18. I am always on the lookout for natural ways to garden, I am having just a wretched time with snails this year. They wiped out my dianthus garden. I'll be sure to give this a try as ants are always around.
    Jemma

  23. I had a huge ant problem and I took sticks and taped them everywhere I thought they were coming in…. no more ants! 🙂

    Great tip on the rooting. I'd never heard of that one.

    xo