My Secret Free Resource for Growing Food
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- Опубліковано 2 чер 2023
- If you have a lawn, you'll have plenty of grass clippings. Most people just compost them or put them out for collection, but there are so many other great uses for this wonderful resource.
Join Ben as he demonstrates how he makes use of this fantastic and free plant food around the garden.
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Hello everyone. I just wanted to clarify that the dilution rates offered for the two versions of the grass tea are indeed correct. The 'pokier' grass tea with the added chicken manure is less diluted/more concentrated because it has been brewed for just a few days. However, it arguably offers a more balanced nutrient profile because of the added chicken manure. The grass tea without the manure is brewed for a much longer time - a few weeks - so it must be diluted further to compensate. Hope this explains any niggling questions on that one! 🙂
Dropping into the comment section just to cheer Ben's channel on🎉❤
Bless you - thanks! :-)
I live in South Africa, and I've got a big garden. Most of my garden is dedicated to food and flowers, so there's not much lawn. And the little lawn there is doesn't get mowed often, because there are too many butterflies and moths and bumble bees in it. It's up to my thighs, but it's so full of life, I refuse to cut it
It's great when you can see all the life in it like that. :-)
@@GrowVeg it really is 😊
@@GrowVeg I've just reread my original comment and it comes across as so snotty and rude. That's really not how I meant it, I'm so sorry. I was genuinely trying to convey just how much I love the bugs that live in the long grass in my garden. Thank you for understanding what I was trying to say
You mentioned this at the begining of Spring. I've surrounded the bases of my plants last month with clippings and I've noticed they're greener and taller than last year. I also water less as the clippings keep moisture in.
This is really great to hear! :-)
This channel is comfort food for my brain. 🌱
Love it! :-)
My wife gets so mad at me when I pull yard waste out of people's bins. I think she's mad at the wrong person.
Lol
She will be fine after menopause
Lol!
Two thumbs up! One for your comment and the other for your great screen name!
This is how stupid the western human is, and the reason our planet is knackered
Having a pond stuffed full with duckweed, (Lemna minor), I take a pool skimmer and fill buckets and use it around my plants.
What a great idea. :-)
Well, that turned everything I've been told about grass clippings on its head. Thank you for educating me. I have been influenced 😂
Nice one Alan! :-)
Last year we gave up our gasoline lawn tractor for a battery-powered push mower instead. We are now mowing less of our grass and leaving more area to the wildflowers and creatures. The battery-powered mower is fantastic! It is so much quieter and lighter, there are no gas fumes, and we don't have to store gasoline in the garage anymore. It also takes up much less room in the garage. It does a good job of mowing and can finish up the whole yard before needing to be recharged. Very happy with this decision and it is good exercise as well! Thank you for another instructive video Ben! I intend to try the grass "tea" and see if that will keep the raccoons out of the garden!
Well done on making the switch and letting more areas grow wild - that's wonderful to hear! :-)
I noticed, of all the mulches I’ve tried, my veggies grew a lot faster when I used grass clippings!
That's really great feedback. Thanks for sharing this. :-)
I’m in Perth Australia and we technically aren’t supposed to bin our garden waste. Most people pay for garden bin bags, a bloke comes and collects it once a month. All of my garden waste goes straight back into the garden. Mulch is heavily used here because it’s so dry.
That's the best way - ideally no one should be letting organic matter leave their garden when it's so useful! :-)
I'm working to replace most of my grass with native plant beds, flower borders, herb or vegetable patches. For the grass that's left I use your system and get great free mulch and fertilizer from my grass clippings. This is wonderful for the environment and your family's health. Bravo!
@@analogueavenue You're preaching to the choir! (just in case you don't know, that's a compliment!)
Brilliant! :-)
Thank you so much for sharing your very helpful videos. We have always been gardening, living and eating organically, and it so lovely how you are showing, teaching and educating people how you can garden without the use of harmful chemicals. Well done for caring for the environment and peoples health. Just loving these videos.
So pleased you're enjoying the videos. Thanks for watching. :-)
Man after my heart. I have been singing the praises of grass clippings for years. They are a most valuable resource. Suppresses unwanted weeds, locks moisture in te soil and adds nutrients to the soil. Best of all its free. 🌸
It's a real win-win!
My free resource is seaweed. You should do a video on using seaweed in the garden.
My favourite, it’s unbeatable. I just hose excess salt off it ❤
@@Katya-zj7ni me too. Love the stuff. Just collected a bunch of horsetail. A little late but it will make nice compost. The biodynamics people use it for all kinds of stuff. Silica content. It's best to get them before the leaves open all the way.
Great suggestion. I'm inland though, but may think of a way!
@@GrowVeg okay! Have fun.
Asked my neighbour for their grass clippings yesterday when they mowed their lawn. Ended up with six bin bags full of grass, a compost bin steadfastly refusing to take anymore grass and no idea what to do with the rest. This video landed just at the right time! I've still got tons of grass but it's either steeping in water, drying in the sunshine or spread over the garden. Thank you, both for the tips and your timing!
Haha - perfect timing!
Really enjoyed this, more of the same please!
I have a lot of trees surrounding my garden, maple, oak, poplar, dogwood, and more. I mow over the leaves in the fall, use them for mulch in the garden, fill my compost bin to over flowing, and fill two trash bins for use later in the season. I'm down to a small patch of ground that I have left to rake up from last fall. It will be going into the compost bin soon. And I am down to half a bin of leaves to spread in the garden. When it i time to plant, I mix it the leaves into the soil, or cover with a layer of compost and plant into it. All of my cool weather crops and potatoes have been harvested, and I have a lot of empty space waiting, covered with leaves, for fall planting to start. My garden is down to strawberries, peppers, cucumbers, pole beans squash, New Zealand spinach, kale, onions, and tomatoes. I'm working on what to plant, and where for the fall/winter garden. I'll start with sowing seeds for Navone Gold Rutabagas in July. In August, I'll plant Cabbage, carrots, kohlrabi, mustard, Komatsuna, Boc Choy, tatsoi, chijimisai, Yellow Heart Winter Choy, turnips, beets, and more. After last December's Artic freezer, I am determined to keep my garden productive year round. I want fresh tomatoes in December and January! (Talladega Alabama) With my luck, it will snow this winter, but that is okay. I am prepared for it!
Great stuff! I hope you get to enjoy some tomatoes in Dec/Jan!
Would love to watch more of your videos to learn more..😊
I’m gonna add grass into my and other composting stuff to my pots every year now so my soil can always be healthy:)
Hey Ben, great video ! I use my and my next doors gras to grow my potatos. That works wonderful. But the birds like it too..
Great use of clippings. :-)
Your videos get more and more wholesome as time goes on. Great for all of us on here
Thanks! :-)
I mulch with grass, but put layers of nespaper or light cardboard to control weeds
Always the best advice on this channel ❤
Thanks so much! :-)
Hi, Thank you for this great tip! I now save my grass clippings for my gardens. Best, Albert
Great job Albert!
I’ve only a small area of lawn left. However as we’re on clay, I just leave the cuttings on the lawn for the worms to drag down- which they do rapidly.
Great move - and saves time clearing them up. :-)
This year I've been mixing clippings with sawdust from a eucalyptus stump we had removed; whenever I can stop my Dad binning them. It's the first time I've succeeded at getting hot compost. Maybe not hot enough, as the butternut squash seeds put in there from the kitchen caddy all sprouted. 😅
They seem pretty resilient those squash seeds!
Ben I have learned so much with your fantastic videos! I always find a great nugget of information in each video, I started a small vegetable garden last year and went into knowing that it was an experiment and of course, most of it failed miserably 😂 but I learned so much from that experience but what a boost your videos have given me over the past 6 months or so since I started watching, my veg patch is flourishing nicely already this year. I just wanted to say a big THANK YOU!
That's really lovely to hear. Delighted that your veg patch is flourishing!
I always also refer to Ben's videos for help and tips as I'm new to producing my own food too, to be fair anything that I grow needs to be perrenial and low maintenance as I'm disabled but I've had a go at spuds this year I can't wait to try them (if they're not infested or rotten lol) from myself too a massive thanks Ben for your videos they're so helpful and informative
Love your enthusiasm and the knowledge in the videos. My new favourite gardening channel. Cheers from Canada.
Thank you so much. So pleased you found the channel!
Making teas from weeds and using urine as well really saves on fertilizer costs.
Definitely!
Very timely, very informative video. You do a great job of communicating.
Thanks! :-)
You are by far, my favorite gardener on you tube. Thank you for all your valuable information, and for your enthusiasm about organic practices.
That's very kind of you to say Peggy. Thanks so much for your support.
The former owners of our house let the weeds run rampant, so there really isn't much grass on the property. It's a challenge, but I'm gradually reclaiming new sections of the yard each year for fruits, vegetables, berries, and flowers. The bindweed and Creeping Charlie are my biggest challenges, since I don't mind letting alfalfa and wild mustard grow for green manure. The alfalfa brings more nitrogen to the soil, and holds the ground together while I figure out what I'm going to do next. It also feeds the wild bunnies, which would otherwise be eating my plants, and the bunnies feed the foxes. I've taken to using the weeds in hot compost as well as compost tea, and find that the garden loves them that way. I also use cut alfalfa and other weeds for mulch, since they will hold other weed sprouts at bay, too. It's all about using what you have, and making it work. What used to be an overgrown mess with old cars strewn about is becoming a functional food forest, and a pollinator haven.
It must be incredible watching the transformation. Good work!
@GrowVeg Thank you. It's so very rewarding, and I really hope that my perseverance is making an impression on the kids. Hard work can absolutely pay off. They love helping me set up new raised beds in the areas where we aren't allowed to dig because of buried utilities, and layering boxes to help block out the weeds for the next plantings. Our pet pigeon provides a free source of manure for the compost, too.
Great video again Ben always learn something new thanks 👍
Cheers Janet. :-)
I have been collecting my grass cuttings for years to put at the base of fruit trees, berries and shrubs. It reduces the need to water t/o summer
Where or how do you store them till it is time to use them?
Thanks Ben,hoping you are having a great growing season!!!! God Bless you and yours!!!
And to you and yours also. :-)
Love your enthusiasm! Keep up the great work! Best, Albert from SF, USA
Thanks so much Albert, really appreciate that. :-)
Well I never did, but I will now, thanks!
note to add for the drying of grass clippings 04:00 - do thus if your lawn/clippings are full of seeds or weeds. the sun will kill off the seeds so they dont grow in your garden bed!
TY!
Great advice, thank you. :-)
i use my own limited clippings, and the mowings from (non sprayed) areas behind us.
looking forward to a comfrey and etc deep dive!
Grass clippings make perfect mulch and also greens for hot compost. I like to leave most of them for my lawn but I will harvest clippings a couple times a year for the garden and flower beds
As always, a thoroughly informative film. Thank you for your advice.
Excellent advice thank you.
Great video on using grass clippings! I love your ideas!
Hi Ben, I watch your videos regularly to get inspired. Thank you for producing these first-rated videos! Best, Albert
Thanks so much for your support Albert. Hope your garden is growing well.
Thanks for the reminder. I need to ask my hubby to save some for the garden. You rock, Ben!
Thank you! Hope you manage to get a good stash of clippings! :-)
I've been using your nettle tea recipe on my allotment. Only yesterday I was thinking if i could do this same thing with grass and weeds.
One thing I'd mention. If you're dealing with long grass, be sure to keep covered up to reduce the risk of being bitten by ticks that may be present. Ticks can carry a host of unpleasant diseasess
Smart advice, thank you!
Great video!
I have started using grass clippings as a mulch around my potatoes in pots to help retain water. We haven't had any rain for a month here in Surrey and it helps with reducing moisture loss. I mainly use my grass clippings in my compost bins mixed with shredded brown paper and cardboard. I didn't realise you could make organic plant teas with them. Will give that a try.
Because of the drought and heat last summer, we didn't need to mow our lawn till middle of September the grass didn't grow, so I was very lacking in grass for compost last year. Making the most of it this year to get on top of things.
Yes indeed - very dry recently, though we've had two days of good, solid thunderstorm rain, with more today I hope! I hope the rain has got as far east as Surrey. I don't want a repeat of last summer's weeks-long heat and drought!
Poultry manure (urea) and rotting grasses... This is how Niter was made for the production of black powder. I'm guessing the Potassium Nitrate dissolved in the water is the beneficial nutrient you are concentrating you could try using some for the same tricks for better yields. Collecting urine from mammalian sources can help speed up the process even further, keeping it wet but not submerged will improve heat retention for the fermentation process and drying your grasses out first will improve yield by allowing the nitrogen to soak in from the start rather than having to diffuse.
In the production of salt peter for gunpowder, the mixture was fermented first then soaked to extract the salts and allowed to evaporate or the plant material was burned away completely and the white ash was soaked in water, strained and boiled off to concentrate the potash (a mixture of salt peter and other potassium salts).
Great suggestion, thank you.
This is what I do when I mow the lawn. I take the bag off and just mow high. Neighbors think I’m crazy lol. Lawn stays green most of spring, summer, fall. Those clippings are good fertilizer for lawn too and builds thatch on surface of the soil which retains water in the lawn. Here in Cali I end up watering less.
Love this! :-)
@@GrowVeg your vid is proof that mowing without a baggie is not crazy. Your enthusiasm, your passion for gardening really shows in all your vids. Loving all your content sir!
Done subscribing. I really love watching your videos sir
So pleased to hear this. A very warm welcome to the channel! :-)
You're like the Alton Brown of gardening. Perfect.
Cheers! :-)
I love your videos! Great work!
Great channel Ben! I have learned a lot from you, thanks again!
Thanks Bruce, appreciate that. :-)
One of my reservations about using grass clipping is weed seed mainly dandelion, already so much of it in the garden.
I love dandelion, or should I say that my rhubarb loves dandelions. The more dandelion plants the more rhubarb. I find they do not seem to regrow under the rhubarb plants.
Once they have seeded it shouldn’t be an issue. Dandelion leaves are excellent to use because their long tap root really brings up a lot of minerals from deeper down in the soil. Burdock leaves are also good.
@@Digeroo123 If you treat them like an ornamental plant they get big and have big blooms that looks like marigolds.
Totally underrated beauty. Some of mine have 20 flowers.
I'm not allowed to have them in the front yard, because the city categorizes them as weeds, but the dandelions and salsify are absolutely gorgeous nutrient accumulators in the back yard. I even have a special purple type of salsify I seeded in the back for extra color, as well as a food source in the fall. The salsify roots are very nutritious. Dandelion can be used for salads, teas, and even wine, as long as it isn't sprayed with herbicide or pesticide.
@@gardennerd1757 like the crows, dandelions have colonized the entire area where I live, I value their benefits but composting my grass clippings and using as mulch I know they will be full of weed seeds they multiply very well without my helping them do so. I have though put the odd grass clippings in my 2nd compost bin.
Where do you get your mushrooms?
Think about growing them, and then using the spent substrate in your beds. If feeling froggy, take spore prints and use them as an inoculant after mixing with water.
Edit: Thank you!
I'm in the UK and recommend this company for mushroom spawn: www.gourmetmushrooms.co.uk/
Brilliant advice 👏👏
Thank you for your videos, this is really useful, thanks so much.
Great video! Good info, many thanks.
Thanks dear friend shereing
Thanks for watching. :-)
Thanks Ben. One other idea: I stuff kitchen scraps in heaps of grass clippings. The clippings seem to help with keeping the critters away from these morsels which decay quickly. The final fermented piles then get added to the main compost. Free is my favorite word!
What a great idea! :-)
I have 1.3 acres of garden (including about half an acre of 'escaped pasture', not really 'lawn') and use a ride-on mower and compost mine in an attempt to reduce the viability of all the seeds. I dont leave it on the lawn/ground because it blocks sunlight (pale grass patches) long before it breaks down.
I have stared to use gras clipings! i think anything i can grow for free and not have to carry in is so so so much beter than carrying it. Im letting it dry out 1st tho.
Bees bees and more bees. My yard used to be a pasture. I have lots of white clover. The honey bees love it. Also wild flowers come up. My chickens love to come out and eat grass after I mow.
I must say I don't rake the grass up though. But all my weeding of flower beds I put in the compost. . ill start using it in the garden some now .
Have a good un !!!!
Just picked strawberries, lettuce, onions,and radishes for my preacher this am ! Its coming on
Glad it's all coming on!
In addition to using grassclippings as fertilizer, you can use an electric mower when there is sunshine from your panels. Free energy, no CO2, free fertilizer
Great to be more self sufficient like that.
Good morning Ben, never gave grass tea a thought! Live and learn daily. Thank you for sharing valuable information. The tomatoes are still growing nicely, there are fruits on the plants and also doing very well thus far. I keep them covered, and trust and believe that the frost will not get to them. It is quite an exciting venture. Happy gardening, the grass is looking lovely and lush also the popups of wild flowers, I so love the tine heads they just complete the scene. Looking forward to your next informative video. Happy gardening and enjoy the harvesting. Kind regards :)
Thanks so much for watching. So pleased you enjoyed the video. :-)
Love it. What a great feed
Love your content! So inspiring! 🐸🐌🌱
I only have my lawn (about 3/4 of an acre) to produce grass clippings to use in our vegetable garden...been doing it for years! It works, my soil now is amazing and our trees provide leaves for our fall mulches for all of our garden beds. Simple is better!
Great video...Thank you!
Mike
Mix in dandelions, I do the same thing but have let the dandelions take over too. Helps with blossom end rot.
@fyoutubecensorship1101 OH I have lots of dandelions!! 🤣🤣🤣
Good suggestion though!
Mike 🇨🇦
Sounds like you've got a superb system there Michael!
Super informative, Ben! Thank you!👍
Great content, as usual. 😊
Thank you!
Deine Videos sind großartig 👍 danke dafür 🥰 Grasschnitt liegt immer unter meinen Gemüsepflanzen 👍 🍅🌶️🍓🥕🥒🥦🌽🧅🫛🥔🍆🥬
Danke! :-)
My bucket where I steep weeds for liquid fertilizer has a tap around 2 inches from the bottom and I just take what I want by turning on the tap. No seeds or solids with the tap being up a bit. =-)
Smart move!
Thanks so much for the information on grass tea. I just knew there was something else I could do with it😊
I don't know if Ben mentions it in this video, but grass seeds can be drowned. Like how you drown comfrey or nettles. They'll rot and won't give any seedlings.
Great advice, thank you. :-)
Thank you x
I'm a bit confused why the stronger grass tea is used with less dilution? Your regular is 1 part to 10 parts water, yet the stronger stuff is 1 part to 5 parts water???
Thank you, I have the same question...
Because of the added chicken manure. You have to dilute it more to keep from burning your plants leaves and roots. Adding the chicken manure speeds up the brew time, but make a stronger finished product that has a greater potential to burn leaves and roots if not diluted properly.
I think he may have just reversed the two formulas for dilution.
Yes, same query here 😁
Thanks for querying this guys - I will add a pinned comment to explain this. But basically I have given the correct dilution rates in both instances, it's just I've used the wrong language to explain this. The grass tea with chicken manure is diluted less because it's only brewed for a few days. It's a more balanced feed as the manure has been added. The one without the chicken manure must be more dilute as it's been brewing for longer. Sorry for the confusion!
I never seem to have enough lawn clippings. They are mulching up the veggie beds. The slugs do not seem to like crawling over them. I also have lots of stinging nettle and comfrey teas.
I fill my water butt with stinging nettles and then water with it. Every day I add more stinging nettles and top up the water and then after a while I take out the stems and dry them out and then put them in the compost bin. They do not seem to regrow after they have been drowned for 3-4 weeks.
What a great idea! :-)
Food for thought
Great informative video
I've been doing this for years, but in a compost ground hole with a lid. That one is for leaves and grass only.
I use clippings around bigger plants. Most go into the compost bins. If I mix them in right away, they turn into usable compost in a few weeks.
That's nice and fast!
Our very small garden has a green area that some optimists might call a lawn, doesn’t bother us, we mow the edges fairly often to have an area from which we can access the beds to work on but the middle is left longer so that clover and daisies can flower. Bees love the clover in particular.
We did try putting clippings down as a mulch Yeats ago but seed from cut grass grew far too prolifically and we were spending too much time pulling rooted grass out of flower beds so we gave up on that. Clippings now go to the council’s compost collection system from where the finished product is donated to local community gardens. Produce from those gardens is free to anyone who wants it. Plan to volunteer to help out there when I retire.
Quick question - last year you grew LEMON GRASS, what did you do to harvest/preserve it? My seed packet said to wait for flowers to fade but not one flower did we see and in the end the frost killed the plants. Growing again this year, do you have any advice on how to harvest lemon grass and preserve for later use? Apologies if you covered this and I missed it, I do try to watch all of your vlogs but may have missed odd ones.
Thanks for yet another interesting and idea filled report.
Great idea to volunteer. :-) My lemongrass produced very thin stems as I left it too late in the growing season to produce anything really useful. But if it had grown to maturity, all I'd be doing is looking for thick sections of stem and then simply pulling/teasing these away from the main clump of grass to use. The stems can be frozen or dried to preserve them.
I like your channel so much!! It’s always time well spent! I’m making a dandelion tea at the moment with leaf mold and water.
That sounds like a lovely brew! :-)
thanks for the tips Ben, didn’t know that about using around sweetcorn so will defo use the cuttings on mine! I use dried very long grass cuttings in my poly tunnel to keep the moisture in but not yet as tomatoes are still a bit short for me to do that. I did with my melons in there too last year and really helped. later in the year I just dug that into the soil so its ready for later growing in there!
Great to use clippings like this - and good to hear it's helped. :-)
Well this video saves me a fortune on fertiliser 🎉
I've made nettle tea again this year for my plants and they love itx
Great stuff Penny!
A tip I was given is to cut the grass often if you leave the clippings because they are small and will work well to feed the lawn.
If it’s growing well, if you don’t cut it twice a week, you should bag it. The longer mulched clippings won’t break down fast enough, and you actually block the soil beneath, preventing water to get to the soil below.
Excellent videos, thank you. I hate having to put all my clippings in the Council's bin, losing that nutrient from my small lawn patch so this gives me a good way of reusing at least some of it. Great channel!
So pleased - it's great to keep them in the garden if you can.
hope his eyes get well. i even do bad with my eyes like him.
Great news.
Plenty of nettles here! I'll add them to the compost! The slugs are thriving hahaha
More grass tea vicar? 😂😂
:-)
When using clippings straight in the bed you definitelly need to have solved the slug situation.
Cool
Hey hun! Its my furst year as an allotment holder and you have helped me soooo much. Great vudeos, easy to understand with a great delivery!! Thanks so much. Ive had a flick through the comments but cant see the answer - can i use our grass at home still if the dog 'uses' the grass too??
Thank you so much for your kind words! I reckon you could use grass (clear of any poo) around any fruits and vegetables, so long as you won't be eating any of the parts that come into direct contact with the grass - so fruiting plants like tomatoes etc.
@GrowVeg thanks so much Ben! Speedy reply!! X x
I am sorry to post here, but was unsure where to do so. Do you have a tutorial on growing Bush Beans, versus climbing beans? Thank You
I don’t have a dedicated video, but this video also covers bush beans I believe: m.ua-cam.com/video/KMZttDZLNds/v-deo.html&pp=ygUNR3Jvd3ZlZyBiZWFucw%3D%3D
After watching a youtube film, I mulched my Tomatoes with a small layer of grass clipping collected from my allotment path, after a month the tomato plants started to leaf curl, other plot holders told me to remove the clippings as its the worst thing for mulching, after this and giving them a mulch of fresh compost they improved overnight, comments please
There may have been a bit of residual weed killer on the grass clippings. Tomatoes are exceptionally susceptible to weed killer, and may have started to curl their leaves because of that. Removing the exposure, and mulching with compost would definitely have helped in that instance.