The surprising old clothing item that solves a messy garden problem

Nowhere in the home can you reuse more of your old stuff, rubbish and recycling than in the garden.

A good case in point is a hack from The Mediterranean Gardener, Michael Griffiths, who made good use of an item of clothing we normally throw out.

He shared the handy trick, which neatly stores an item most gardeners have one too many of, in an Instagram reel.

Watch the video above.

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Using a pair of old stockings, also known as tights, Griffiths turned one leg of them into a storage bag for plastic nursery pots.

For any stockings that have a hole in them, such as the toe area, he recommends just tying it into a knot.

With that sorted, Griffiths then said to cut or rip them so you can use just one leg.

"Now you can collect all your pots, which are going to get blown around the garden and start to shove them down into the foot," he said.

"Stack them, hang them up and cut the toe when needed."

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The hack means there'll be no more messy pot piles on the ground or in the garden shed, giving more space for actual garden work. It also means these pots are easily accessible so you can reuse them instead of letting them just pile up in a big mess.

Those who watched the video were impressed with the hack.

"This is genius!!" one said.

Brilliant! Now to find me some perfect tights," another wrote.

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Others shared their own hacks for reusing old stockings in the garden.

"My dad used to dry onions in me mums tights," a woman commented.

"I use them to tie up plants," a gardener said.

"I cut up old tights into strips and use as ties to hold plants to canes too! Works like a charm and they're flexible so minimal damage to stems etc," another wrote.

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In addition to storing pots and onions and being turned into plant ties, there are several more uses for old stockings in the garden.

Sections of stockings make brilliant seed savers, especially as they will help protect the seed pods on plants like sunflowers and zinnias from being nibbled by birds.

Just cut up a section and tie it around the flower head until it dries enough to collect the seeds for sorting. You can also use stockings to store seeds in after collecting, just make sure you label them so you know what's inside.

You can also cut off sections to tie around fruit so that they too don't get eaten or attacked by pests.

Using a larger portion of a stocking you can make a support for vegetables like melons so the fruit doesn't drop to the ground while it's still growing and not yet ripe.

And to help with an ever-present fear for gardeners and Aussies in general, old stockings can be put over the tops of boots and even gardening gloves to stop bugs like spiders getting inside and giving you a nasty shock.

Basically any garden task that requires a netting type material can involve using some old stockings.

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