Woman explains how you can use a tampon to save house plants

I'm terrible at looking after plants. There, I said it.

It doesn't seem to matter what I do, one way or another they just always end up dead.

Do I not give them enough sunlight? Too much sunlight? Too little water? Too much water?

I'm not sure, but at least now it seems there's a simple solution for one of these issues.

If you find that you're accidentally overwatering your house plants, you might want to grab a tampon.

Yes, really.

This trick was shared online by a woman from Canberra, Australia, called Empress Eyrie.

Writing in a post on her Facebook page, Empress, a burlesque dancer, explained: "Well. Need a laugh AND a hack?

"I overwatered a few of my hoyas of late and I was worried about these new ones having the same issue.

"I saw this tip in the comments of another group and decided to try it myself.

"I don't use tampons but had them in the back of the cupboard and half the packets were damaged and were rubbish anyway so thought I would give it a go and it bloody worked."

She continued: "So much moisture drawn out of the soil in only a few hours, so if you accidentally over water your water sensitive plants plug a tampon in it.

"They have doubled in size."

Overwatering plants is an issue as it can cause the leaves to wilt and turn brown and also lead to root rot.

When roots rot they turn brown or grey and can look slimy. The roots are essentially drowning.

This hack could help prevent this from happening.

However if it's too late, you may need to trim the affected roots and repot your plant in order to give it the best chance to recover.

People online loved the tampon trick, with one person branding it "bloody genius".

Another commented: "Omg I need this hack!!! Hahaha I think I have some old tampons laying around somewhere...."

A third wrote: "This is the best."

Following the success of her post, Empress has made a YouTube channel to share plant tips on - including this one.

(Photos: Facebook)