When hair falls on the wrong side of the scissors, it typically ends up in the trash. It could end up in the ground, though, cozying up to the roots of your veggies and providing them with nutritious, hairy doses of nitrogen. According to Marketplace, a company called SmartGrow based out of South Florida uses hair — yes, human hair — to weave all-natural mats that crowd out weeds and act as organic fertilizers.

The boiled, sanitized hair is imported from China (since it’s generally less treated than Western hair), then stitched into rolls, circular mats or cubes that are placed at the bottom of pots or around the stems of plants. The product laces crops with nitrogen and other micronutrients while squeezing out weeds and helping to retain water. University of Florida plant pathologists found that the mats eliminated weeds better than the leading herbicides. The product also boosted plant size, making hair-matted plants grow up to 30 percent bigger than controls.

SmartGrow’s warehouse of hair may sound a little macabre (is anyone else reminded of hair-bartering Krook from Dickens’ “Bleak House”?), but the product is doing well. Eco-minded farmers, nursery owners and home gardeners have already bought two million mats since 2003.

More or the home page:
How Organic Farming Works
Does fertilizer help or hurt my lawn?
How Organic Food Works