10 FREE Garden HACKS Using Household Items, You Can't Afford to Miss This!

what's going on Growers it's James Prigioni coming  to you live from Jersey today me and tuck are   going to share with you 10 household items you  can use to improve your garden for free let's go the first useful household item is a Q-tip if your  squash plants develop little mini squash that turn   yellow and die off before they mature it's because  they weren't properly pollinated squash need bees   to pollinate their flowers and their flowers don't  remain open for a long period of time if you have   a few days of rain and the bees aren't out you can  use a Q-tip and go over to your squash flowers go   to the male flower this is the one with no  squash at the base of the flower take your   Q-tip and gently swirl it on the inside of the  male flower to get some pollen on it you should   see some yellow pollen on the Q-tip then take your  Q-tip and bring it over to the female flower these   are the ones with the mini squash at the end of  it take your Q-tip and use it to pollinate the   female flower this way you can ensure yourself  pollination and guarantee yourself more squash   you can also use the male flower to pollinate the  females you could pop one of the male flowers off   and bring that over to all the females but using  the Q-tip is a good safe way to do it if you don't   have that many male Flowers By the time all the  female flowers come out the second household item   is a clothespin when it comes to Growing fruit  trees it's important to prune entering them to   the shape most suitable for the kind of tree that  you're growing when I first plant my apple trees   I make sure to prune them to a central leader and  I use clothespins to train the branch angles to 60   degree angles I do this because the angle of the  branches will determine whether the branch focuses   on Leaf production or fruit production these  clothes pins are the perfect tool to help spread   the limbs on my young apple tree the third useful  item is an egg carton to start your seeds in I use   this plastic egg carton because it acts like a  mini Greenhouse just make sure before you use   it you cut some holes in the bottom to allow for  drainage then just fill the cells up with soil and   plant your seeds I chose to plant an orange hat  tomato and some eggplants I wanted to start large   season here like squash because the cells are just  too shallow I suggest sticking with small seeds   like tomatoes lettuce eggplants things like that  since the cells aren't very deep I would suggest   transplanting out of the carton when the plants  get two true leaves the fourth item is a clear   gallon jug which will act like a mini Greenhouse  I simply cut the bottom part of The Jug off   with a scissor so that it would lay flat on the  ground this will act as a form of protection for   one plant during cold nights and it will help the  plant grow quicker using the greenhouse effect it   will work especially well if you got too excited  and transplanted out a tomato too early and now   you're getting a cold windy night just make sure  to build up some wood chips or some soil around   The Jug this way it won't blow over let's take  the jug off and see how well the tomato is growing   pull it off just like that look how beautiful and  healthy it is we had a couple cold nights but The   Jug really helped to protect the Tomato tuck seems  to give it a tuck approved too which is always a   good thing we got the little boss out here with  us having a blast me and Tuck want to mention if   you're enjoying the video to hit that subscribe  button and hit the like button if you want to   continue following along as the growing season has  just gotten started the garden's looking great and   we're real excited for uh to get our first massive  harvests I also want to mention to check out the   merch down at JamesPrigioni.com grab a gardening  is life shirt with a flower of life on it me and   Tuck love being out here we love that you guys  are a part of the team so we just are thankful   for these opportunities and this guy's glistening  in the sun enjoying himself you can see he's got   the brown nose he's been digging out there so he's  got Turtle over his nose he's having fun we're   just having a blast enjoying the nice weather  the fifth item is dish soap you want to pick a   dish soap that doesn't have added fragrances and  isn't a Degreaser you want it to be pure I had a   bunch of aphids on my young plants so I made  a dish soap spray I use between two and four   tablespoons of dish soap per gallon of water mixed  it together and then added that to my sprayer make   sure you spray the top and bottom sides of the  leaves because the insects need to be completely   covered with the Soapy spray in order for it to  be effective you can see the plants look really   nice now and the Soapy spray helps to kill off  the aphids let's check out one of the bottom   of the leaves adding some cold pressed neem oil  to the spray will make it even more effective if   you want to spend a few dollars I got mine over  on Amazon the sixth item is a plastic bottle or   Solo Cup both of these are great to start season  and they give the roots of the plant more room to   grow than the egg carton does make sure you  cut holes in the bottom of them so they can   drain I just use a razor to cut a few holes at the  bottom of the container this way the water doesn't   pool up at the bottom and cause the soil to go  anaerobic then I filled them up with soil and   plant my seeds in them they do take up more space  than planting in something like a seed cell but   the they allow the plants to grow larger in them  so that means less transplanting the cups are also   deeper than something like a four inch pot like  right here so they're a really good option if you   don't have hundreds of tomatoes that you need to  plant the seventh household item you can use is   cardboard cardboard works great for suppressing  weeds and it will naturally break down over time   what I do first is go around and remove any tape  that's on the cardboard box then I lay out the   cardboard and cover it with a thick layer of wood  chips this helps to hold the cardboard down and   also helps to suppress the weeds over time the  cardboard will break down and some worms might   even come up and eat that cardboard to help build  healthy soil cardboard can be a bit tedious to   lay down if you have a big area to cover so if  you want to spend a few bucks this is a great   option right here this is contractor's paper it's  essentially thin cardboard and one reason it's so   great is because you can just lay it down roll it  out and then cover it with wood chips just like   that the eighth item is a simple cup some kinds  of seeds are tough to get consistent germination   on like spinach or even sometimes peas if you  allow the seeds to soak in water for 24 hours   before planting this will greatly improve the  germination rate when planting spinach I I always   let my seeds sit in a cup for 24 hours before I  plant them out it's easy to do but makes a big   difference especially when you're planting  spinach in the late summer for a fall crop   the ninth household item are eggshells eggshells  are a good source of calcium so you could either   add them to your compost pile or you can crush  them up using a food processor or even a mortar   and pestle that's what I did you can sprinkle the  crushed eggshells around your tomato plants when   transplanting to add a free calcium boost this  will help prevent Blossom and rot make sure to   keep your tomato plants properly watered as well  because consistent proper watering will also help   prevent Blossom and wrap know that the eggshells  take a little bit of time before they break down   and before the calcium is actually bioavailable  for the plants so make sure to add the eggshells   when first transplanting out your tomatoes for  the 10th household item I have two wood ashes   and coffee grounds wood ashes from a fire pit can  be used as a natural source of potassium ashes are   best when adding them to the compost pile this way  you can get the benefit of them without the risk   of it negatively affecting your soil if adding  ashes directly to your soil be careful not to add   too much because ashes will raise the pH each  of your soil so you only want to add some ash   to your soil if your soil is acidic and is below  about 6.5 pH youth coffee grinds are also a great   choice to add to the compost pile by adding the  coffee grounds to the compost pile we're setting   up the perfect scenario for the microorganisms  to convert the nitrogen in the coffee grounds to   a form that's readily available for the plants  the acid in the coffee grounds before you use   them is water soluble this way after you use the  coffee and make a cup of it the acidity actually   ends up in the cup rather than staying in the  coffee grounds used coffee grounds have a pH of   about 6.5 to 6.8 so that's not very acidic at  all it's actually quite neutral but still just   to be safe if you want to use coffee grounds  directly in the garden I would only suggest   using it around acid loving plants something like  your blueberries do you have any additional hassle   items that you use in the garden let me and Tuck  no down in the comments we love Recycling and we   always love getting some free garden ideas do all  these items work as well as some products that are   specifically designed for gardening no not all of  them but I think they're great cheap Alternatives   especially when you're first getting started  if you decide that you really love gardening   and want to invest some money then you can pick  up some specific products something like these   epic seed cells these are an incredible value for  the price but they're not super cheap if you're   going to Garden long term it's a great option  though because they last a very long time and   they're super high quality before me and Tech let  you go we want to show you a few things we've got   growing on for instance right here we've got a  bunch of tomatoes that we're hardening off you   might think man that's a pretty good amount  of tomatoes that's nothing wait till you see   what we have grown in the greenhouse check out  everything we have growing in here and these are   only summer veggies tomatoes peppers eggplants  and a bunch of different kinds of flowers   let me show you some of the beds because we  already have all of our brassicas in and they're   looking fantastic the egg cartons work relatively  well for starting seeds the only thing is you have   to transplant them out relatively quickly because  they're just so shallow as opposed to something   like the Solo cups right here this pepper will be  able to grow in this Solo Cup until it's ready to   be transplanted outside if I time this a little  better I could transplant right outside from this   egg carton right here but the thing is my tomatoes  need about two more weeks until they can actually   can actually be transplanted out into the garden  I usually don't transplant my tomatoes into the   garden until about May 20th I'd rather be on the  safe side because when temperatures drop down into   like the 50s even though that's not that low the  tomatoes aren't going to show much growth they   really like those hot hot days me and Tuck want  to give you a quick peek of one of the raised beds   you can see everything is starting to grow all  the spaces are starting to fill in and we're just   super excited about it one thing you'll notice is  some of the white on the plants that's due to the   surround cable and Clay it's just overspray from  spraying it on our fruit trees because we need to   keep spraying our trees with the surround kale and  Clay to keep away our Nemesis the plum curculio   look at this guy up here looking for some snacks  he thinks it's care time it's not quite care time   yet boyo and me and talk wanted to just send out  a huge thank you to everybody it was his birthday   just about a week or so ago we posted on YouTube  about it and there was just an endless number of   happy birthday wishes so Tuck's really thankful  for it so am I we're just really happy and we   can't wait to do the tour because this is the  time of year in early May where everything just   starts blowing up in growth the weather changes  things just start growing and all the harvests   start coming in so quickly so it's only a matter  of time until we're just pulling out massive   amounts of food we can't wait Destiny's video  Growers thanks for watching I hope you enjoyed   it I hope you got something out of it me and Doug  hope you take some of the ideas that we share with   you and use them in your garden it's nice to  have some free cheap Alternatives and options   if you don't feel like forking out a really  lot of money just to get your garden started   me and talk wanted to thank one of our new  channel members while we're here John J Forty   thanks for being a part of Team grow thanks for  having your hand in everything we're doing out   here we also wanted to mention to check out  some of the merch down at JamesPrigioni.com   grab a t-shirt one of the gardening's life one  with the flower of life right on it we really   think they look awesome and it's probably  going to be a limited time thing so check   them out at JamesPrigioni.com tuck and James  will be back again real soon we out! [Music]

Channel: The Gardening Channel With James Prigioni

Views: 326,567

Keywords: free, free garden, gardening, organic gardening, free garden product, raised bed garden, raised bed gardening, diy, recycle, recycling, recycle garden, upcycle, recycling garden, sustainable, homestead, sustainability, off grid, how to, James prigioni, epic gardening, self sufficient me

Id: SpU28u2sazU

Length: 10min 19sec (619 seconds)

Published: Sat May 06 2023