Gardening

A Plantable Pencil

By Larry Hodgson 

Somehow, I missed this one: a pencil that you plant after you’ve worn it down to a nub, thus giving new life to an end-of-life product that would otherwise be thrown away. They’ve been around since 2014 and apparently over 30 million have been sold in over 80 countries. 

Pencil with top removed, showing seeds inside.
The capsule at the tip of the pencil hides seeds you can sow.

Each Sprout pencil contains at its tip, rather than an eraser, a capsule of seeds. There are 10 different varieties that grow into vegetables, flowers, herbs and now, even spruce trees!

Also, all Sprout pencils are 100% natural and are made from sustainably harvested wood. The writing material is a mixture of nontoxic graphite and clay and the seed capsule is made from plant-based material.  

Sprout pencils for used as Christmas gift.

If you want to try one (and they would also make interesting gifts or stocking stuffers), all of the Sprout World products are available online at sproutworld as well as on Amazon. You can even have the pencils customized, perhaps a promotional idea for companies looking for a sustainable gift for their clients.

I suspect that if I were given a Sprout pencil, I’d have a hard time waiting until it became too short to write with: I’d probably plant it right away!

All photos from sproutworld.com.

Garden writer and blogger, author of 65 gardening books, lecturer and communicator, the Laidback Gardener, Larry Hodgson, passed away in October 2022. Known for his great generosity, his thoroughness and his sense of humor, he reached several generations of amateur and professional gardeners over his 40-year career. Thanks to his son, Mathieu Hodgson, and a team of contributors, laidbackgardener.blog will continue its mission of demystifying gardening and making it more accessible to all.

4 comments on “A Plantable Pencil

  1. I appreciate your fantastic post. Thank you for sharing this post.

  2. Okay, now that is just lame.
    Nonetheless, it is something that I think the kids might enjoy. Do kids use pencils anymore?

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