Easily Nourish Your Garden By Repurposing Old Pillows

A worn-out pillow may seem like a no-no for your compost bin, but this isn't always the case. If it contains down feathers, it's a valuable source of nourishment for your garden. This pillow filling can fertilize your soil and enrich your compost. That's because feathers contain significant amounts of nitrogen. Plants use this nutrient when absorbing water and making chlorophyll. When feathers are added to planting holes, they infuse the soil with nitrogen as they break down. They release it into compost piles and water, too.

Soaking feathers before tossing them into your compost pile keeps breezes from carrying them away. It can also accelerate the decomposition process, as can cutting the feathers into pieces. Try making liquid fertilizer as you prepare pillow feathers for your compost pile. Combine two gallons of water with every handful of down pillow stuffing, let the mixture sit for two months, then strain out the liquid. Before feeding it to your plants, add 10 parts of water for every one part of feather fertilizer so the high level of nitrogen doesn't burn their foliage. When composting, incorporate 30 parts of carbon-rich material such as dried leaves for every one part of nitrogen-rich feathers.

There are other ways to use pillow feathers in the garden, too. You can incorporate them into organic mulch — grass clippings, for instance — and spread the mixture around plants to keep the soil moist and smother weeds. According to a study published in the Journal of Agriculture and Ecology Research International, feather-fortified mulch aids crop growth, which may boost yields. It also adds a number of nutrients to the soil as it decomposes.

Down feathers aren't the only pillow material that can benefit your garden. It's easy to compost pillow shells and fillings made of natural materials such as cotton, linen, or silk. Check the tags to make sure the pillows don't contain any synthetic material — polyester, for example, which won't decompose — before shredding them and tossing them into the compost pile. Over time they'll break down, adding carbon to the soil instead of taking up space in a landfill. Ground-based carbon supports plant growth in a variety of ways. Pillow filling also releases carbon dioxide as it biodegrades. Plants need this gas to turn sunlight into chemical energy that fuels their development.

Pillows, bedding, and other household textiles can be repurposed as garden decor, too. Upcycle old pillowcases into bunting for garden parties or festive summer yard decor, or use beat-up pillows to stuff the clothes of a homemade scarecrow. Pillowcases, sheets, and other large, flat pieces of fabric can also keep nutrient-stealing weeds out of your garden if you secure them to the ground. They won't hold up as long as traditional landscape fabric, but they'll add nutrients to the soil as they decompose. Or, use these swaths of fabric to shield vulnerable plants from frost. Growing melons or squash vertically, perhaps on a garden trellis made of repurposed mattress springs? Use fabric scraps from old pillows to make slings that support the fruits as they get heavier.