17 Brilliant FREE Vegetable Gardening Hacks | More Food for Less Effort

This video shows you 17

free

garden tricks that I use all the time in the garden. And I'll add a few extra at the same time. I made this video to celebrate the release of my new book. It's called "Grow Free Food." Imagine being able to grow enough

food

using only sustainable techniques and at the same time enjoying homemade products every day of the year at zero cost. "Grow Food for Free" includes everything you need to know to grow

food

without the need for money. It is suitable for both beginners and experienced gardeners. Use the link below to get your copy of the book and the future of

free

food awaits.

Now the delights. Ice cream, yogurt and cream cups make great free plant labels. Carefully cut the cup into strips about 1.5 - 2 cm wide. And then describe the clean side. These plant labels last for many seasons and it is easy to collect pots from neighbors and family. Use permanent marker to ensure water resistance. It can be used both outdoors and indoors. One of the most amazing ways to grow potatoes is to simply place them on the surface of a raised bed and cover them with mulch. Mulch can be straw, old hay, or fall leaves. Once the potato plants appear through the mulch, cover them again with mulch and then let them grow until they are ready to harvest.

About a few weeks after flowering. Simply uncover the mulch and pick up the potatoes. You can also use wood chips as mulch. Blackberries and other prickly twigs provide an immediate fencing effect to protect seedlings from slugs. Cut the twigs to 30cm and place them as a fence around your seedlings. You can also put two or three rods on top of each other, which won't stop all the slugs, but I guarantee a substantial change. The suburbs and countryside are full of wild brambles that need clearing, so rather than clearing and burning all the brambles, this is a great way to use their twigs in our gardens and grounds to keep slugs away.

This won't be suitable for all climates, but I try to garden according to the climate. I always prefer to sow seeds and transplant seedlings during or before a heavy rain. This means you will save time on subsequent watering and water supply. Because the rain will do everything for you. My YouTuber friend Steve from "The Optimistic Gardener" came up with a great way to reuse pallets to make your own pots. And if you have extra nails or screws, or reuse nails from pallets you took apart, it can be a free project. You can find free pallets in many places.

For example, last year I received three pallets from a local tennis club. These pots have the added benefit of being able to make them as large as you need. And at the same time without plastic. Create the frame and then nail it to the base. Just make sure the pallets have the HT symbol, which means heat treated, not chemically treated. If you're having trouble creating straight seed rows, you no longer have to figure out how to do it. Cut a piece of bamboo a little smaller than the width of your raised bed and place it on top.

Then press firmly to the desired depth, lift and you now have a perfectly straight line. You can also perform this amazing technique using an old broomstick or a long piece of wood. Another way to create a perfectly straight row, which can be used both for seeds and for transplanting seedlings. You take two sticks and a piece of rope. Tie one end of the string near the top of one of the sticks and glue it to the edge of the widest side of the flower bed. Stretch the thread to the other side of the bed, leave a little

more

and cut it.

Tie it to the second stick and roll it to the desired length. Glue both sticks to the sides, squeeze by twisting them and you will create a perfect straight line. Popularized by Charles Dowding, it is the multiple planting technique, which allows

more

plants to be grown in a smaller area. And at the same time, you need

less

fertilizer for them to grow. For example, beets, radishes and turnips can be sown in quantities of 4 to 5 seeds in one place in the pot and then transplanted. As they grow as a bunch of seedlings, they will push each other.

And multiple planting means that planting and transplanting time is significantly reduced. Cardboard rolls (toilet paper) are perfect folding planters for storing seeds. They work especially well with peas and beans. And when it's time to transplant, you can place the roll directly in the soil while it decomposes. Which means that not even the seedling will suffer as much from the transplant. Fill the rolls with homemade compost and sow the seeds. Leave them in the boxes so the fertilizer doesn't spill. Alternatively, you can cut the end of the roll 4 times and fold it inwards. This will create a cup.

This trick is the most satisfying thing a gardener can do. Fill the old canal with compost and sow the seeds. It works great for peas because when transplanting, you dig a row in the bed and then let the seedlings slide down the channel into the row. And they are immediately transplanted. It also works well for others like salads. A quick bonus for peas is to use Christmas tree branches to create supports when transplanting seedlings. Collect branches from neighbors and recycling centers in early January and use them however you want. It also works great with sugar snap peas.

One of the most effective ways to increase your garden's production is to focus on a monthly planting schedule rather than an annual planting schedule. It has many advantages. By looking at your garden month by month, you'll be able to plan ahead as soon as a window appears. This way you can plant and the seedlings will be ready to transplant when you harvest the previous crop. This will give you two or three crops from the same location in one season. At the same time, using a monthly plan helps a lot to feel in control. It's much easier to see what happens within the monthly cycles.

It also means that the plan you will have will still match the design of the garden. Bill Mollison has suggested a great way to ensure that parsnips and carrots germinate beautifully. The trick is to prevent the seeds from drying out during germination by watering them after sowing and then placing a board over the row to reduce evaporation. You remove the board when small seedlings begin to appear. If you want to have healthy and strong tomato plants, here is a clever trick to really encourage the formation of a deep root system. Then you transplant the tomatoes and water them a lot.

Do not water the seedlings for seven days. This will encourage the formation of the root system (the roots will be pulled out for watering). This will make the plants more resistant and they will also have more access to nutrients and water. Did you know that you can also grow the dried peas and beans you have in your kitchen pantry? You can grow them both outdoors and indoors. And you will get a fantastic harvest of not only peas, but also sprouts, which are a great addition to any salad. Make sure to soak the peas for at least an hour, this will help them germinate faster.

Weeding the garden is not one of the most pleasant jobs, but there are some ways to make it much more efficient. First, determine the time to weed the bed once a week (flexible) so it doesn't get out of control. And try to weed during midday when the sun is intense or just before and let the weeds on the surface of the bed dry. It breaks down and saves a trip to the compost. An additional tip is to use wood chips, which you can get for free from your local arborist. And use it as material to cover paths around flower beds.

In a year or two, the wood chips will decompose beautifully. Simply collect the composted wood chips and cover your growing beds and containers with them. Then add a new layer of wood chips for the paths. It is an excellent form of multifunctional

gardening

and if you want to know more about this technique take a look at the video description. A mental trick that works. When you feel a little overwhelmed by

gardening

tasks, you should focus on one thing at a time. Simply choose a task that has a higher priority and start working on it. And don't continue with anything else until you complete the designated task.

It will help you focus and feel better after completing that task because then you will have fewer tasks to complete. And the priority task I would choose is the one that takes the longest, because if you complete this one, the others suddenly seem much more doable. If this doesn't excite you too much, another mental trick is to prioritize all tasks that take 5 minutes or

less

. And you finish them before you start anything else. Doing this means checking off and completing simple tasks first and more than once. For example, pruning currants. And completing all these small tasks will help you feel very productive.

Next time you're in the garden, grab a notebook and make a list of all the five-minute or shorter tasks you can imagine and do them one at a time. I find these lists simple and useful. And it feels great to cross things off the list. So here are 17 free garden

hacks

that you can easily and instantly implement in your garden. And if you find these tricks helpful, then you'll love my new book "Grow Food for Free." Which is full of different techniques and gadgets that will help you grow your food without having to spend money. If you would like to support this channel while learning how to significantly reduce your garden costs, pick up a copy of Grow Free Food today.

And all the information and links you need for this are below in the video description and in the comments. I hope you enjoyed the video and let me know if you have a favorite device or if you're just getting started. At the same time, if you have any questions or ideas. I hope to see you in the next video. Bye bye. - Czech subtitles were provided by the Permaculture Academy, the educational group of the association Permakultura CS www.akademiepermakultury.cz and www.permakulturacs.cz