Households told to keep avocado scraps with little-known garden benefit (2025)

Don't throw away unused avocado skins - turn them into a quick and easy organic fertiliser to boost your garden blooms

You've hit the jackpot: a perfectly ripe avocado, a delicious brunch and now you're feeling nice and full.

But what do you do with the leftovers after peeling an avocado - bin them, right? Wrong! Gardeners are being advised to hold on to the tough outer skin of their avocados, because they make the perfect organic fertiliser for your plants. There's an incredibly cheap and easy hack to use up discarded avocado skins - all you need is a food processor and a few minutes of spare time.

Take your skins, having scraped out the last of the tasty flesh and removed the large pit, then add them into a food processor or blender with a splash of water.

Give them a blitz, adding more water if you need to loosen the concoction, until the coat has been thoroughly smushed. You can then take the mixture outside to your garden, balcony or window box and pour it directly onto soil or into the base of your established plants.

This gives soil a much-needed blast of one essential nutrient, according to experts - and so helps give your leafy plants a smoothie boost.

"Avocado skins are packed full of nitrogen, making them a natural fertiliser," says Wonkybox.nz. "Nitrogen is an essential nutrient for plant growth, playing a vital role in promoting healthy foliage, vigorous root development and overall plant vitality."

However, it warns, don't use too much of the liquid in one spot, "as excessive nitrogen can lead to imbalances and potentially harm your precious plants".

Users of the Composting sub-Reddit have been trying out the tip in their own gardens, to mixed reviews. "I think avocados are the toughest to decompose," wrote one. "I know squirrels live to eat any leftover avocado left in the inside of the shell, but it takes a very long time for the skin and seed to decompose. So, cut up the skin(s) to small pieces before tossing to your compost."

But another advised: "The red wiggler worms love to reproduce in them. And having chunky stuff in the garden soil isn't necessarily bad. It creates air pockets which is good for plants and microbes."

And a third joked: "Plant the seeds even if you are in a cold area. You've got a one-in-million chance of finding a cold-tolerant avocado tree."

Another green-fingered user has tried the avocado hack and says they now do the same with all their leftover veg. "I have a crappy food processor that i use for garden sludge for my worm bin," they wrote.

"I tend to be the type of bachelor who'll buy a bag of carrots use 3 for a meal, then have a gross bag of carrots in a few weeks, so I grind/blend a lot of my veggies in that 'not for kitchen use' food processor and I find banana peels, rinds, avocado peels will get mulched up in there as well."

Have you tried putting avocado skins on your soil? Let us know what happened in the comments below.