Top 10 Free Vegetable Gardening Hacks

Want to put just 2 seeds in your seed cup? Pour out seeds onto a paper towel and take a sushi stick and dip it into water and put it on one of the seed. It seems like it jumps on the stick. Transfer to seeding soil and twist to release. Redip in water and repeat. I love the TP idea for seeding 🤩

If you have to use containers to garden (like I do), you can fill your pots at least halfway with just leaves and sticks and other natural materials you find around your yard. I have been able to recycle my potting soil for years now because I always layer it with lots of browns and greens to give it new life.

If you plant the seedlings with the toilet paper tube a bit above the soil line, it can also act to protect tender stems from cutworms. A warning about covering your plants with plastic bottles. If you're doing it for frost protection, make sure no part of the plant touches the plastic as plastic conducts the cold directly to the plant (ask me how I know). A beer trap is also effective against slugs. I love how resourceful we gardeners can be!

Been doing tp transplants for decades! Our big fam knows do not toss tp rolls.😂 Hoard rolls all winter in a leaf bag in basement. After frost dig a trench slightly over 3/4 deep as tube. Fill tube 3/4 with good soil n drop in a seed. Flowers will grow in line of trenched tubes. ..super neat! Best beside paths or along a fence! Seeds will not wash away... great seedling wind n bug protection too... Attracts worms so works great in tuff clay soil...planting in rolls and small boxes feeds worms so turns tuff clay area into descent garden soil in one season🎉 Thx for vid❤

When planting zucchini, I put aluminum foil around the base of the plant to deter vine borers. I've found it to be 100% effective. Maybe I'm just lucky 😊

If you also pour beer and semi-soak the bottom of that plywood for slugs - you will pull them in for miles - and greater capture and processing rate. Using any old sponges, cut up into smaller 2 inch x 2 inch sponge cubes. Slightly soak in beer in the afternoon, and plant at evening. Disperse these around the garden, and the slugs will be atracted to these beery sponges and away from the vegs. Process the slugs in the morning (if you have ducks or geese - let them eat them) - and VOILA !!! no more slugs. Maybe chickens might eat slugs - or peck them to death ...

I tried planting tomatoes seeds this year early IN THE GROUND by using a bunch of milk jugs! I cut the bottom out of the milk jugs and placed them on the ground (raised beds I made outta old pallets) and covered the bottoms up with soil to keep insulated...I took the caps off and sprinkled tomatoe seeds in them and watered them...didn't take long and they sprouted up! I have so many tomatoes come up I hadda give some away! I'll definitely be doing this again next year instead of planting indoors...this was a game changer!

FYI the cap on that 2 liter bottle fits on a garden hose. So if you lose your soaker house end cap... just use a 2 ltr bottle cap. Lots of good plumbing hacks there as well.

My sister gave me a box of coffee pot paper liners when her office swiched to a pod system. Great liners for any pot or water bottle to prevent drainage holes from getting plugged. And can be used to remove transplants easily from pots. Biodegradable.

I use old mini blind slats for plant labels...one blind makes a gazillion! 🤣🤣🤣

Thank you for another awesome video! The first week or so after I plant my tomato starts out, they often get cut off at ground level by some mysterious nighttime insect. Maybe cutworms? What works for me is a small vertical collar I cut from a paper towel or tp tube and wrap around the base of the plant when I put it in the ground,. I press it into the soil ever so slightly, just so bugs can't crawl under. The little paper tubes eventually fall apart, but the plants are strong enough by then and don't need to be protected.

I had NO idea you could use bag beans to plant… what is a bean anyway? A seed! Duh! Lol good tip, Brian! I hope you will do more of these videos…you touch on tips and tricks here and there when you do you you normal videos, but these one concentrated videos are perfect. Thanks!

When I couldn't find seeds for Greek Giant beans (also called Gigantes since they actually come from Mexico) I bought a bag from Rancho Gordo, the online gourmet bean company. Delicious & creamy texture! Now I just go to my jar of harvested dried beans from last year to grow this year's crop.

Those plastic containers with solid bottoms and raised tops, like the ones that rotisserie chickens and some cakes come in, make great little mini greenhouses for starting cuttings inside. If you are a container gardener, plant things in buckets small enough that you can move them around . After I plant carrot seeds in a bucket, I sprinkle a thin layer of sand over the soil. I top that with a single layer of paper towels. The paper towels make watering easy because they keep the water from displacing the seeds. It is easy to see when they start to dry out so you can keep them damp. When you lift them to check for sprouts, the sand lets you peel them up and let them back down again without getting all covered in dirt. Just remove the towels when the carrots have sprouted. This technique works with any tiny seeds. I love gardening in buckets that I can move easily to adjust for sun exposure. Just make sure they have sufficient holes for drainage. I use tulle for many things, - great to keep soil from leaking out of drainage holes, - great for keeping birds and other critters away from tender plants, developing fruit, etc. and because it is so lightweight, it never drags foliage down.

Forget tp rolls. Use paper egg cartons instead. Decomposes faster and the roots can grow through them. And each one tears away easily. I started seeds like watermelon and tomatoes this year.

i have squirrels that steal all the apples off of my backyard tree, so I put plastic bottles (like orange juice) over the apples when they just start to form and tie bottle to branch then the apple stays squirrel and bug free mostly some bugs sneak in when apples are ripe i cut bottles off of branches. nets over tree didn't work and other things i tried but at least i get a few dozen apples.

Measure your fingers, hand and hand to elbow. Figure out where there is 1/2", 1" 2" 3' 10" etc. Your body has its own meausrements, use them when spacing seeds, plant depth etc.

Put a aluminum pie pan FULL OF BEER on the ground. Now patience. At first you might see "bumping" to the bottom of the pan. Soon, slugs will be crawling into the beer! Don't use "light beers" though. All my friends thought I was crazy until we all got together one night for a "Slug Party"! Put your pans out right before dusk, socialize for awhile, and the slug dive will start. I learned this trick about 40 yrs ago out of a " Readers Digest" and skeptically gave it a try! Amazing! What a way to go!

For deep watering use a jug regular without cutting and put it cap side up. Poke the holes down at the bottom corners. Then you can put the cap back on it to prevent evaporation and keep dirt and bugs from getting inside it. You should be able to plant four to eight plants around it. Great for when you have to leave for a couple days

I can’t handle this level of common sense! 😂