Dirt CHEAP Tricks for an Abundant Garden

Your garden looks amazing!

Love the idea of using animal waste! We have two pet bunnies, I grow all of their food in our garden so it's a nice symbiotic relationship to use their droppings as fertilizer! Thanks for the tips, learning so much from you!

Great tips, thank you!👍😊

Darn, my apologies Ben. I’ve been calling you Bob😂😂😂😂😂

Don't we have to open the bottom of these toilet roll tubes while we plant them?

Here in the US our local Walmarts will recycle the nursery pots. People bring them in and drop them off next to the bag recycling bins. You are free to take as many of them as you want. Our recycling centers also will give you nursery pots if you ask and they have any.

I use maple saplings for plant supports. We have the helicopters from the maple trees falling and I won't pull out all of the seedlings this summer. I will leave a few to get next spring when they are around 6-8 feet tall. I leave some to grow on for walking sticks also.

I do not like the toilet paper tubes, they seem to mold rather quickly. The paper pots we make pretty much the same way, but we paint the outside of the cups with a glue and water mix and allow them to dry most of the way before we remove them form the cups. I do like the paper and peat pots because they can be planted hole and you do not have to worry about root shock.

I absolutely love your tips! I'm all about saving money in the garden. Facebook often has local gardening groups where members are all too happy to share native seeds to those living in the same region. I have gotten milkweed this way and intend to pay it forward when given the opportunity!

I’ve got a fabulous basically free fertilizer recipe called fermented plant juice. Early in the morning when the plants outside are expressing their dew, go cut the tips of vigorous growing grasses and weeds in your yard. Collect at least a packed cups worth. Next you’re going to massage the same amount per volume of brown sugar into the tips of your plants. Keep this in a glass jar with a breathable lid on top like a paper towel or cheese cloth with a rubber band securing it. You’re going to leave this to sit on your counter for seven days, stirring once per day. It’s going to make a syrup, kind of like putting sugar on cut strawberries. After the seven days, you’re going to strain the solids out and reserve the liquid as your fertilizer. If there’s not enough liquid, you can add a little bit of water and stir well before straining the solids. Store in your fridge and use 1-2 teaspoons per gallon of water. The tips of vigorous growing plants and weeds in your yard have a lot of growth hormones when you collect them at the time they’re expressing dew. Dandelions are a great choice but collect a variety of all that grows vigorous and natural. Weeds with especially long taproots are a great choice. This will have pretty much all the nutrients and micro nutrients you need. I’ve had great success with this!

Do you have any suggestions for protecting my plant from fox? Every night they make mess my vegetable beds and digging the soil. Not only that they leave their poo on the grass.

Hi Ben, when composting egg boxes do I need to remove the sticky label or can I leave it on the box?

Okay. Another money saving tip, playing off of what he ^ said. Gutted refrigerators, laid on their backs (doors removed), drainage drilled into back makes great deep raised beds. Fill the bottom with logs, brush, and anything organic and fill with compost.

The Real Seed company have a special pack of seeds at a reduced price for low waged or unwaged growers.

Thank you so much for the biodegradable newspaper pot tip, that’s going to help me so much!

I bought several packets of seeds from the Dollar store. They are perfectly fine, they cost .25 cents and you get enough to try different plants. I have too many sed packets with too many seeds that last too long. I buy from a famous online store; they tend to give you double the seeds you buy and when you spend $10.00 they throw in a free packet of seeds they also offer free shipping. Not everyone realizes that you can double your tomato crop but propagate from your own plants. I double my plants like that all the time. Tomatoes can grow roots all along their stem. Last year I bought a pack of romaine lettuce because I noticed that the shop planted 14 in one 6 pack so I got 14 romaine for a few bucks.

Binge watch, here I come! Watching these videos is relaxing and exciting at the same time. Hope you enjoy, too.

I love your channel but I have a question, using the newspaper would make the veg not organic wouldn't it? As the paper contains loads of chemicals would they not go into the soil and in turn in the vegetables?

Only drawback to the toilet roll liner (sorry, American here) is that if you keep them standing right up against each other for support, the roots can grow through the sides and intertwine. When it's time to plant out--riiiiip! Poor plants. It's a sign that they are good materials for planting out in since the roots can so easily pierce the sides. I always fold mine into fours--half and half again, I'm going to try the non-folding method--would save me some time and my way, the rolls can crack apart at the glue. BTW if you are a perfectionist, measure up one half the diameter to cut.

I don’t have a green house but I have a shed. Would it work?

Ps: love your content x

I am a new gardener and I am learning so much from your videos, thank you xx

I've found a good time to stock up on seeds is at the end of the season when stores are trying to get rid of them. I got all my seeds half price at the grocery store last fall hehe

I suspect, that top of the fridge germination also sped up by a small vibration from it. Just a theory.

Thank you, Ben! I was looking into gardening but saw it was so expensive, so I didn't bother. But now your tips helped and I'm going to start planting this spring!

Great suggestions as always! One question I have is, you mentioned rodent droppings are good for the compost. What about rats? Wild rats have invaded my compost bin but I’m afraid to use it now because of the possibility of rat droppings. Any thoughts? Thank u!

So much more sustainable to reuse and upcycle too!

I use second hand market sites to buy old fruit trees. Plant nurseries would ask 25 euros for a 2 year old peach tree, for example, and I buy one that's 7 years old, with a thick trunk, for 50 euros. A 7 year old huge kiwi vine for 20 euros with the heavy metal support system for free. In a plant nursery, a small kiwi stick would already kost 20 euros.

Seeds here in Indonesia is extremely dirt cheap, you can buy them online for about 1.000 rupiahs ( 8 cents ) for almost any kind of seeds. Which will get you 10-100 seeds for each package. And its free delivery .For an heirloom varieties it could cost double but still very cheap.
For comparison a kilo of sugar here is $1. So it's not a problem here. I lived in The Netherlands for a while and the price of seeds there were ridiculous !

Thanks for these great tips, useful for when we build our new beds...soon.
I used old milk cartons as mini greenhouses, successfully before our greenhouse was built!

thank you for all your idesa. something i did this past summer that helped against aphids = i put cedar chips around near the soil where the plant is most likely to have aphids. this worked well for zucchini, squash, pumpkins, just any plant those nasty pests bother.

Rural King has very cheap potting mix. It's kinda woody but less than 3 dollars for a large bag. They also have compost/manure mix for the same price. I bought at least a hundred bags last year. I started with hard clay and now I have pretty dark soft soil about 6 inches deep before it starts turning back to clay. Not bad progress for first season. I expect next year to be a lot more productive. I have been making lots of compost, burying fish scraps, food scraps and basically anything that will break down in my gardens. I mulched with a layer of alfalfa pellets, a layer of cardboard, then topped with leaf mold and then a bunch of leaves. Most were from previous years as I raked them up from the forest behind my house. Human urine also makes great fertilizer for heavy nitrogen feeders. Just dilute 3 parts water to one part urine. It really does work like a champ

im a huge fan of seed saving and propagation, and i love the idea of making your own seed starting containers out of common biodegradable junk.

some of your plant recommendations tho like bamboo and butterfly bush are unfortunately invasive and ecologically damaging in north america and shouldn’t be planted here. personally i’d recommend sunflowers as alternatives for producing canes - the stalks dry very well and they can reach some incredible heights.

Great videos! I love seeing Rosey 😊

Great information, love your videos! I try to plan ahead for next season and buy needed items from clearance this year. Got raised beds, large planters, portable greenhouse for 50%+ off. Also get premium potting mix for almost nothing and add it to gardens or even compost for over winter.

I've been collecting larger sized plastic cups, cup holes in the bottom of one, plant your seed in it, fill the second cup 1/3 of the way with water and put the cup with the soil inside the cup with the water, the water will soak into the soil through the holes in the cup and if the cup is clear you can see the water level dropping, just empty any extra water once the soil is saturated, even with bigger plants it's a good way to start seedlings, and help the environment.

Great video my friend

Been considering starting to compost and its so funny that you had guinea pigs in the video since i have them in my home and have been thinking if i could use their droppings in my future compost! Haha

Thank you! Most of these hacks I already know, but I get overwhelmed and forget to employ many of them. Drought and inflation have kicked my SSDI (US disability) ass just as I was finally getting the hang of growing rather than killing veggies and sustaining a beneficial insect population.

If you have sea close enough, you can find many things like wood, nets or sometimes even pots that you can use in the garden. Also you can collect seaweed to make your own conditioner (just check first if it's legal where you live)

Good presentation

Have you done a green house review ?

Good news, plant your veggies in random shit so you’ll absorb chemicals and who knows what

My main tip is: Limit yourself to what you know works in your climate. I have tried well over 150 verieties over the past decade but reality is only about 25 to 30 really work well and reliable in my climate/soil. So inform yourself and limit yourself there will still be plenty of food and be honest do you even find that much variety of veggies in the supermarket. Trying to grow things that should not grow in your region you will just leave you dissapointed and wastes money. Trust me i tried so many of them. (with the exception if you have a greenhouse ofc) .

And you can use bulk seeds for a lot of types. Like all cabbage/kale family seeds can be used up to 5 years same goes for bean/peas family (sugarsnaps excluded stick to 3 year for those if they have the shrinking raisin type seeds) and they retain a near perfect germination rate.
I planted 2018 climbing beans this year and i had a 95% germination rate. I have sown 8 pots with 7 seeds each and i have 1 pot with 6 germinated and 1 with 5 so only down 3 seeds.
Carrot is more picky and i stick to 2-3 years for those and sow extra in 3rd year.
And corn really only use it 1 year. So buy corn seeds to your demand and discard or sell excess as they will not be good next year. I never had last year corn germinate.

As for bamboo im doing a experiment this year. I'm going to dig deep and spend a lot of money on rebar and paint them a light colour. It costs me hundreds the first time but they should last forever. I have spend more on bamboo in just the last 5 years. I don't find growing it myself a option as i have a tiny garden and it would take at least 3x2 meter to supply me with enough for all beans, cukes, tomatoes, and so on.

You are amazing!

when I needed to fill some beds with better soil and I didn't have the money, I initially asked if they made compost and no, they didn't they sold bags of commercial. So, then I asked them if they had any spent potting soil that they woudn't reuse I could have and they let me go out where they dumped some mums and other stuff. So I filled a 40 gallon plastic horse trough and I had a cow mineral feeder tub probably 30 pounds and I filled that up. Which was really nice of them to do that. It was kinda funny, I was in back of the greenhouse at the end of the parking and this lady thought I worked there and asked me if there was a butterfly bush anywhere. I looked like I worked there I had my shovel and my wheelbarrow, so I thought I can help her find this bush. I owe the greenhouse at least that.

Great top about putting seeds to germinate on top of the fridge

What species of bamboo do you recommend please

A little 'caring and sharing' time: Ask neighbours and friends for their fallen leaves, grass-clippings, cardboard, plastic pots, loo roll tubes etc. and return the favour by offering them some surplus veggies or preserved foods in return. It will encourage them to save more of what you need to save you costs. They get some healthy organic food in their diet which may encourage them to buy directly from you rather than chemically-enhanced expensive food from the supermarket or swap for a bag of rice, for example. It might be enough to pay for next year's seed bill or to plant a fruit orchard if you have the space 🤗