10 Best Gardening Hacks
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- Опубліковано 10 лип 2024
- Want to make your gardening jobs easier? Want to save time and find short cuts? Well this video is for you, our muddy-fingered friend! In this week. Ben reveals 10 of his best hacks to lighten your gardening load and help ensure you success in your garden, including some not-so-obvious lightbulb moments. It's short and sweet this week. Let's get growing!
For more ah-ha tips and tricks from Ben, check out our other hack-tastic videos:
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And for more on sharpening tools, see:
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If you love growing your own food, why not take a look at our online Garden Planner which is available from several major websites and seed suppliers:
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gardenplanner.almanac.com
gardenplanner.motherearthnews...
and many more...
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I bought a leather Fanny pack to keep a pocket knife, zip ties, paper and pen etc. small stud I never know when I will need. Put it on when I head into the yard/garden in the morning. Has been wonderful.
Simple but very effective move - great idea. :-)
Another!
People seem to chuck out old plastic hanging baskets (I asked about locally and was given 30!)
String strong wire between poles about 4ft high, plant strawberries in the baskets, and attach to the wires...... Saves a great deal of bending!
Such superb additional tips - thanks so much for sharing these! :-)
One more, when you're pruning, keep a rag soaked in surgical spirit /Jeyes/disinfectant/or similar, in your pocket, belt, whatever, and clean the blade of your knife or secateurs when you finish one Bush /tree, before you move on to the next. This minimises cross infection.
For garden tools we have a large metal bucket with sand and we have mixed vegetable oil in it lightly. When we are done with our garden tools we have a paint scraper we used to scrape off the bigger clumps of dirt, then we plunge it into the bucket of oily sand a few times which helps get a lot of other dirt off of it too and coats it in oil. We then have an old hand whisk broom we used to brush off the excess sand. Then the tools are cleaned and oiled as soon as we are done.
What a great system you have. :-)
I took all my tools and covered the cutting parts. Then I painted all the handles blaze orange with spray paint. Ever since then, they've been much easier to collect at the end of the day. Doing it daily as you wrap up your work is smart. That helps you avoid accidents, keep track of valuable tools, and be all set for the next day. I learned the hard way and just dug up the hori hori knife I "lost" two years ago. I feared it was lost (or tossed out), but I've been able to recondition it all. Now off to paint the handle ORANGE!
So pleased you've managed to salvage your hori hori knife!
It makes me so happy to see someone pottering around a garden with so much enthusiasm. I am binging gardening videos to help fight the January blues (and the week long rain we've had). Thank you so much for the smiles and the fun, Ben.
You're welcome Christina. February's not too far off now! :-)
I know what you mean, Just like today, pretty grotty as usual. Roll on spring. I wanted to start planting seeds for February, just as Ben kindly listed in his latest video, but I was told not to use the kitchen (!), so will await another day, keeping inside and warm 🙂.
To control my garden hoses, I hammer a piece of quarter inch rebar into the ground as a stake about a foot tall and then put a PVC pipe over it to cover it. It then becomes roller, making it very easy to work with the hoses.
That's a really clever move, love it!
I grow 3 lots of comfrey on my allotment (big clumps) . One for making comfrey juice, one for putting on the compost heap and the third to lay along the rows of crops in my raised beds. At any one time I let one of the clumps flower to encourage the insects. It seems to work well.
Comfrey is such an amazing plant! Planted my first five last summer; hoping to turn those five into 15 this season.
So your using concrete as a cover crop? Great ideas
Comfrey not concrete
. Autocorrect is rubbish
@@daveswords2112 It might as well be concrete!... and no, not as a cover, but as an aside to use for fermentation, animal feed, pollinators and such.
Comfrey rhizomes are formidable foes in a veggie garden, but placing the harvest as a cover/amendment to feed the soil is a great use! Worms and top feeding roots/critters love the shade, moisture and nutrients derived through decomposition.
I plant comfrey, for example, around my fruiting trees, but I would not plant them around greens, carrots, broccoli, peppers and such.
I do very similar…with 6 clumps…which I harvest in rotation, always allowing 2 clumps in flower and the others for adding to compost heap or making comfrey tea😀😀😀
Last year I put up a large peg board in my garden shed, painted it black, hung up all my hand tools, then drew around each one in white chalk. In just a glance I can see if a tool has been left outside. It will have an empty outline... kind of like a murder victim ;)
Ok that's pure genius
That really is genius!
Thank you Jo and Ben. I learned it from my dear dad, he was a Master Organizer :)
(bowing deeply) I'll never be that organized.
Cleaning the shovel was priceless!😂🤣🤣🤣.
The bucket with sand is one of my favorite tips. Especially when you have no time to wash them.
As always, great tips!
🙏
Cheers so much! :-)
On the farm, we used to put the oil in a bucket of sand next to the tool shed door. A quick thrust of the rinsed fork or spade or trowel oiled it for storage without breaking stride.
My husband sprays all my tool handles bright yellow, as I also work off our farm as a gardener one day a week. No more running over lost tools in the long grass with the ride in!!!!!!! Happy New Year and cheers, Muffy from Oz (Australia)
Smart move Pamela!
If u have birds stealing the strawberries, paint some rocks red before the strawberries ripen and the birds will get tired n move on.
I did this last year and it worked beautifully! I have now used those same 3 Strawberry rocks for 3 years.
Devious
I was wondering if this really worked....I usually have mine in hanging baskets...
Tried that and unfortunately it does not work on Cat Birds. Way too smart.
Fooled the sneaky magpies the last few years in my garden as well (Norway)
Thank you for the tips. I keep hand towels in the garden to dry my hands :)
Great idea. :-)
Haha, you are so funny. Don't know anyone who loves gardening as much as you do. Enjoy watching you and always great tips!
Thanks Stacie! :-)
Brilliant tip with the croquet hoops, I will definitely be trying something like that as I always catch plants with the hose! Great tips as always, thank you. 😊
Cheers for watching Bev. :-)
Thank you Ben. I've had a crappy day but even my mood couldn't stop me from laughing as you oiled that shovel!! I must get better at caring for my tools. Might make that my resolution for the year.
Delighted to have raised a smile Monique! :-)
You can mark out your parsnip row by mixing the seed with a bit of radish (use a long French Breakfast type rather than a globe shape) . If you sow in March, cover them and pull the radish young, you've got a bonus crop.
I use a power mower with it's bag attached for picking up leaves. (we have LOTS) Not only does it make quick work of the process, it also chops the leaves into a finer consistency so they compost faster. Rather than put all the leaves into the composter, I plastic bag a few batches to keep over the winter and use as mulch the following year.
That's a very smart move. :-)
Good idea about the sticks as props for the peas. Laying the sticks on the beds also prevents the chickens from scratching up my beds when they accidentally get in!
🤣🤣 My hens are never in those beds “by accident”! 🐓🐓🐓 Those girls are a wee bit too clever (and found the berry plants way too quickly). I was just outside strolling about with the hens and figuring how I can be smarter this summer. I’m going with chicken wire fencing as needed.🐓🐓🐓
Change the water from thyme to thyme
Very, very good! :-)
Heeeey my fav gardening man. You helped me get the craziest yield in the overgrown raspberry bush in our new home we purchased last year. Thank you so much. I literally love your energy and the way you speak about gardening. Thanks for keeping me company and teaching so well ♥
Thanks Sarah, I really appreciate that - and I'm delighted your raspberry is thriving. Great news! Happy Gardening! :-)
Love the idea about the hoops. Soak rusty tools in vinegar, and once they're clean soak in water and baking soda to stop the reaction. Vinegar is amazing at removing rust.
Great tip, thank you. :-)
I ve got one awesome hack which will help the spring time.. sow in the autumn (carrot parsnip radish parsley scorzonera etc etc). I donno what is the climate range this would work, but it works in finland at least (our winters: normally 2-5months fully or mostly frozen, the average coldest temp may be from -15c to -40c). It really helps the spring time not being soooooo busy.. plus the stuff will start growing a bit earlier this way 🙃
This might work well somewhere really cold in winter which has one thawing season. But in the UK the temperatures in the winter go up and down like a yoyo. A warm February day might get them excited when there is not enough sun, or they die off in a cold snap later or get ripped apart from a windy storm.
@@Digeroo123 yes i think so. I always watch a few british garden channels in envy, when theres spring in february and we are still waiting for it like 3more months 😂
I'm in Canada and have the same temps as you so will try that this fall, thanks :)
@@joan-lisa-smith yes 🤗 basically most root veggies will work. Also salads and many perennial herbs. Sow quite late, like just before the snow comes. Though i ve heard you could also so ON the snow, at least if you can still locate your correct sowing place etc 😄
@@tiarianamanna973 February can feel very damp and dull. Seedling damp off. One day they are all jolly and the next a total wipeout due to moulds. Apart from snow peas and broadbeans I do not do much until March, and last year the rats ate most of them.
We all have to make the most of what we have. But I have to admit that self sown seeds of carrots, parsley, parsnips etc do seem to know when it is time to pop up, so maybe sowing in the Autumn is a good idea. I got a special offer on carrot seeds so I have loads, so I should have some left. Though parsnips sown too early are very prone to canker.
Love the hose and croquet hoop trick!
I have spray painted the handles of all my tools a vibrant turquoise so they are easy to find in the garden, but more importantly easier to spot when loaned out so things actually make it back to me.
I love garden
'Rake it to the tarp' is a brilliant idea! Thanks!
I modified this into 'rake it to the cardboard', because tarp is a bit difficult to hold and carry, cardboard is much easy to pickup with the leaves on top of it.
That's great to hear. And you can compost the cardboard along with the leaves too. :-)
@@GrowVeg Yes, if the weather is dry the cardboard can use for many days, but if the weather is wet i just through the cardboard together with leaves into the compost bin.
Add lengths of rope to the eyelets of the tarp to provide a way to bunch it, making it easier to move when full or finished.
Smart move!
Had some spare heatproof tape from the poly tunnel wrapped around all my tools as being visually impaired it’s amazing I can see them amongst the grass and the cuttings and the flower beds
I cut toilet paper rolls in half and use them to Mark where I have seeds planted. I just pushed the toilet paper roll into the soil a little bit so it won't move, and plant the seed in the middle.
Great idea!
When I'm collecting leaves I like to use our trash bin after collection day. It's really large and it has two wheels on it which makes it really easy to move a lot of stuff. I especially like it in the fall when I'm getting leaves up and down the street from my neighbor's piles.
I do the same thing, use my yard debris bin. Makes it so much easier!
I do that too sometimes. 😀
I feel that tool handle comment in my soul. I've started going out of my way to look for tools that are that bright 'Safety Orange' since that is a color that doesn't occur often in my garden.
I wish people would stop calling tips "hacks". Maybe two on this list would qualify as a hack.
TIP: If you don't mind dedicating a tarp for material transport, I sandwich one side of the tarp with furring strips. That keeps the tarp nice and flat, it helps keep it from blowing away before material has been placed on it, it keeps it from folding up while dragging it, and you can attach a rope to the furring strips and it becomes very easy to drag around. Bonus, you can roll it up and lean it against a wall for storage.
Great tip with tarp. 😀
@@GrowVeg Thank you. No disrespect intended in my original comment. I know you're just following the trend. :)
Finally moved into a house, very excited to have a ground to garden in this year! These tips were very helpful :)
That's fab to hear. Hope you enjoy working on your new garden - exciting times ahead! :-)
I have a tip with toilet rolls. I cut them in 4 and use them to space my carrots. It is time consuming to plant one seed at a time but there is no thinning to do and it saves the seeds that otherwise would have been pulled out.
What a great idea! :-)
My rain gutters have a few spots where drips occur during heavy rains. I collect the water for later use in 5 gallon buckets on pavers or long neck watering cans if they occur on a plant.
Great to use every drop of precious rainwater. 😀
@@GrowVeg Yes I am on well water so even without a drought I have a limit.
A Southern Hemispshere tip from Auckland, in New Zealand ! I have struggled to keep Tamarillo trees alive, as they were persistently getting some kind of mildew attack. I finally came across this simple remedy - One part milk to 10 parts water, plus a teaspoon of baking soda. Spray this on the leaves, and hey presto, healthy plants. I am intending to use this magic mix on pumpkins next year, and hollyhocks. Cheap and effective.
What a superb tip - thanks for sharing this.
Like the hack for the 'hoop' when watering. I suspect that will work for electric chords as well.
To fill my water butt, no hosepipes allowed, I have persuaded my plot neighbour to have a small post in the corner of his plot, so the pipe runs round his plot and I do not accidentally pull it over any of his plants.
When planting bulbs i throw a handful of shredded bark mulch on top of the soil until im done and then top dress the whole lot. That way i know exactly where the bulbs are and it deters the squirrels and foxes from digging them up straight away!
Great idea!
Great Show Ben , I especially liked the crochet hoops , Cheers !
Cheers!
I keep a can of red spray paint to paint the tops of tool handles. Makes the much easier to see where I laid them in the yard.
What a great idea!
I love my foam kneeler! I even take it to the all you can pick strawberry fields. I work a little faster and happier when I am not muddy. It fits perfectly in my bucket of tools so I don't loose it or it doesn't blow away!
A great endorsement for them!
I plant radish seed as markers for parsnips and long germination seeds and then they are up in less than a week and mark the row - plus if the radish pest dont get them too badly I can harvest them after the parsnips are up and thinned...Happy Gardening
Brilliant suggestion David. :-)
I agree with you, you can never have too much herbs, makes great seasoning and flavours.
Hi we have a tip if you have more than one watering can on a big plot and wandering around looking for them why not keep them in one place. Put a long cane or old broom handle in the ground and put the watering cans handle over the cane one by one to form a tower there you have them altogether on one place and can always spot them👍
Good idea Mandy.
Taking care of gardening tools? 😂 This is British. My tools get abused. Love the channel. 👍🏼
The bucket idea is great, just drill some holes in the bucket for when you forget and leave it out in the rain :)
Smart move!
Roll on 2023 season
I needed the croquet trick with the hoops! Thanks!
This as a great video with very useful tips.
I don't know how useful this is outside the USA but I use 1 inch mini blinds in white or ivory/cream as plant markers. I cut them into the length I need and write on them with a #2 pencil. Sometimes it fades but I've only had a couple completely fade to obscurity and I've been using these for 8 or 9 years. I collect them at the end of the year, wipe them down, erase them, toss them in the dishwasher, and they are ready to use again.
That's a really great idea Sara.
It's nice when your raised beds are at least 2 ft tall. Then you don't have to crawl on your knees with knee pads! Makes weeding and harvesting a lot easier too!
Very true!
I love the cuttings tip! Great site.
Hi love your enthusiasm. I use my ride on mower which has a catcher to pick up all the leaves. I drive over the leaves and then cut some grass, I get it all mixed up that way so I can dump it directly into the compost bins.
That's a great way to do it - and the leaves and grass mix is really powerful stuff!
If I need to enhance light for seedlings and don't have enough window sill room for a large reflective board, or a supply of spare old aluminium foil, I turn crisp packets inside out, rinse off the salt from the silvery side, then pop them over a couple of sticks poked into the dark side of the plantpot or seed tray. Flexible, lightweight and absolutely free. And you can recycle the packets once you have finished with them. Cheers.
What a great idea, Margaret!
oh my goodness, that face when oiling the shovel, hahahahahahah!!!
I have bright pink tool handles ideal for me being able to find them 😊
The knee pads are a good idea. Like you I have several pairs of jeans the same. Thanks for all the ideas. Brilliant.
The sign of a keen gardener I guess! :-)
@@GrowVeg yes partly Ben plus bony knees doesn't help either 😁
Love the garden hose idea! I always seem to damage a few plants no matter how careful I'm trying to be. Thanks!
Ben has the best advice!!
Hose hoops!!!yes. Thank you. Another great video.
Thanks Ben I always come to your channel when I need advice. I didn't do well with my peppers last year. The other day I watched your pepper video and now I know what I did wrong last year.Such good clear videos. You've help me so much over the last 3 years of growing my own. 👍
So pleased you've managed to work out what went wrong with your peppers. I hope they thrive for you this growing season. :-)
I have 3 cats, and the branches really do keep them out of my beds. Keeps the random neighborhood cats out, too.
I ask all my Friends to share their egg shells as most folk bin them.I then crush them and add to my compost for some magic recycled calcium not to mention free coffee grounds from the local coffee shop.The garden loves it
That's really fab to hear - they're clearly doing a power of good in your garden. :-)
Always a pleasure, very practical advice 👍
If you rake a large area consider a leaf blower of the appropriate size. I shred and bag all my leaves in the fall as soon as they fall and dry out.
I am now 72 years of age and when i was in my 50's i tried using washed river sand to grow plants hydroponically -the area i set aside for this experiement was10 sq mtrs -what surprised me was the seed strike rate when planted in the sand and just watered -it was extremly good- so i continued that seed raising process up untill today where i have about 1/4 acre of ground growing all my vegies-if you are lucky enough to have a heat matt this works very well uner the sand and assists with striking of seeds..all the best for 2023 John
Sounds like you're incredibly productive there John - good work!
You're so funny 😂 thank you for the tips.
You're most welcome. :-)
Tip: For standard spacing of plants, get a piece of furring strip or strapping (it's like a wooden yard stick) and mark with a sharpie your intervals. I have one for 18", 12" and 6". Then you can lay them on your row and plant your seeds or starts perfectly. Just pick up the stick when you reach the one end, and place the stick edge at the last plant or seed you planted.
If you drill a small hole on one side, you can hang them from a nail or peg on a pegboard and keep them out of the way.
I inherited 2 of those from my dad! Very handy.
I love this idea!
What a great idea!
I measured my hand trowel and know that length. Could also mark on the tool.
Burgon & Ball now make tools in neon pink and yellow, they tend to be sold off as people don't want to buy them but they're amazing - you can see them a mile off so it makes doing a check around before you pack up for the day really easy.
Oh I had a good laugh at 3:53 🤭
Love your videos! Always filled with great information!
I would say just get some workpant like constructionworkers use. U can then put neepads inside the pants and have some great pockets to sore some tools. Like pruning shears are a meter.
Brilliant Ben! I love your videos!
Like Diane, I store all my seed and growing info in a spreadsheet and add/subtract entries each year as needed so I have an annual record. Included are the seed packet info (source, sowing info for each season, # seeds left), transplanting, thinning, fertilizing, watering, pest/disease info relevant to my garden (when to add row covers, etc.), harvesting info (size, timing). These feed into another spreadhseet where I can show what's in each location by time (horiz axis) and see a snapshot of the entire year's crop layout by location (vert axis). It's a handy complement to the GrowVeg maps. Thank you so much for the wonderful videos, we always enjoy them.
Sounds like a great system you have Kris. :-)
Wonderful stuff Ben, thank you for sharing buddy 👍
Thanks so much for your great practical advice.
I like that hoop idea for the hose!
Tip: Used coffee grounds keeps cats away from using beds as their toilet. I planted cherry tree in October and covered the area around the tree with fresh compost as mulch and long release feed. Few days later I saw a cat using it as a toilet. This happened again three times and after I spread grounds this cat has left it alone.
That's a really helpful tip - I'll have to try this myself.
@@GrowVeg Cats don't like the smell of coffee, benefits are twofold, it works as a deterrent and fertilizer at the same time. Smell doesn't disappear quickly, at least for cats. I reckon even mixing more with fresh compost would work well.
Excellent again Benedict, I've lost a few hand tools because of green handles only to find them months later. Will get some bright tape. Atb 👍🌱
Love the bucket of dry sand for tools tip!
Great hacks Ben! I will be doing several of these. Thanks!😃💕
Tip 8
Tried it
Seeds expiration is last year which comes from the freebies (and the once I bought expiration is next year)
11 out of 30 seeds germinated
We use or practice many of these tips. Learned a few new/better ways to do things in our gardening. Keep them coming. Great information and reviews.
Will do, thanks Jeff!
Great video Ben. Thanks for sharing.
Thanks for the info. Always helpful.
use reflective tape (3m scotch lite) and in the darkness you can find whatever is lost with an led flashlight. (think of it like a police car logo/stop sign)
Great idea!
Great tips! Love your videos ❤
Thank you Mr Ben : )
Thank you Ben, really good tips
Thank you for the tips!
Wow these are FANTASTIC tips, my goodness, I feel silly for doing some of this things differently all these years- these are going to be INCREDIBLE time savers. This is what one of my favorite of your videos!!! ❤️
Thank you so much!
You're very welcome - delighted you've found them so useful. :-)
Hi Ben, brilliant tips! Thanks for sharing and take care 🙂
Great video, good tips. Loving the spade care section 😂
I cut up plastic milk cartons for seed and plant labels the white ones are best but can use the opeque ones
I got a set of knee pads, but to keep them from moving around I had to strap them so tight they cut off the circulation, so I didn't use them that much. So I got a pool noodle (I don't know if they're called something else outside the US) and cut it in half and taped the two bits side by side. And I use that to save my knees.
What a great idea Stephen. :-)
Thank you Ben for the gardening tips.
I thought I was the only one that lost clippers and trowels in the garden.
Last year I bought florescent pink spray paint can and I'm spraying all of my handles this spring. :)
Wow - you won't lose those then!
Love the channel. I am so glad you stressed the importance of knee pads. Upright, we enjoy the shock absorption provided by our toes, foot bones, ankles, and knees. When on our knees, however, we are driving the forces from our weighted movements into our hip joints directly, risking the damage or destruction of the very delicate blood supply to our hip bones. This is partly the reason for so many hip joint replacement surgeries.
Oh wow - I had no idea! Thanks so much for sharing this. I'll definitely be wearing my knee pads more often!
Great advice, thank you
My wife is a rock hound. Large ones make excellent hose guides.