I once turned a kitchen rubber band into a tiny vertical irrigation wick—just looped it through a cracked glass bottle, tucked the other end into a damp pot of soil, and the water trickled up like a lazy river. It was absurd, but it kept my tiny tomato seedlings from wilting when the sun hit them at a 30‑degree angle, which I measured with a cheap digital protractor that had stuck to my desk. Fun fact: the average leaf angle for tomatoes is about 28 degrees, so that little band was doing more than just holding my plant together—it was a scientific instrument in disguise.