What I learned from cardboard sheet mulch is remove the packing tape

Hi Kevin, I grew up in a 3rd world country and came to the US ~16 years ago. I think a lot of tips that you didn't like, that has to do with plastic, are more applicable for the countries with a lot of plastic waste and no available products like in the US. `Why would someone does this? Just use the tool that is designed for the job.` -- This is privilege! Those tools either don't exist on the market, or would be very expensive. While labor, heat, and plastic trash are abundant.

Just a small note, concrete blocks are just fine to use in a garden, but true cinder blocks will actually leach ash and heavy metals into the garden, making it poisonous. Luckily, in America, at least, new "cinder blocks" are actually concrete blocks.

When i buy transplants I look for multiple plants in the pot that I can separate and save money

if you have trouble with mosquitos in your rain barrel you could just add a couple of fish. I had this problem, added a couple of goldfish and don't have any mosquitos anymore + I get water with fertilizer in it for my plants

Yes about the ‘garden burnout’. It’s real 😂 I love my garden but yes, I do get a little lazy around August. I sit and stare at my peppers, telling myself I’ll pick them tomorrow and preserve them in some way, but sometimes I let it slide.

I think August burnout happens because from June to July, you're battling drought to keep your plants happy. And you might lose fruit to thirsty birds and squirrels.

I've been doing the cardboard thing for years. Just don't use glossy stuff. Chip boxes from the grocery are best - non glossy and usually no tape, and really big. If you ask nicely they will be happy to give you some!

Adding Bacillus thuringiensis will  turn your rain barrel into a mosquito trap. I have a small brownstone courtyard garden in NYC and wanted to add an 100 gallon antique stock tank. My wife said I had to figure out the mosquito issue first. I grew up outside Kansas City and remembered that farmers put this strain of bacillus in stock tanks. I buy bags of powder but You can get it now in a product called mosquito dunks. It's a bacteria that is harmless to birds, mammals reptiles etc. but eats mosquito larvae right when they hatch. Does the same for those flies that breed in the sink, and for fungus gnats that attack seedlings. Now I have fewer mosquitoes than ever. My friends in the suburbs use 5 gallon bucket of water and create mosquito traps for under their decks.

A few years ago my friend had a cedar tree 🌲 cut down near her house. She was afraid it might fall on her house the fella who did it ground up some of it and needed a place to dump it! I asked him to dump it next to my raised beds that my husband built for me as I’m disabled and I can sit on the edge and work! I was going to use the cedar for compost! My husband said “Maxine, don’t you know cedar won’t rot?” We fast forward to 2025, I grow so many things in that mound! It’s easy! I just toss seeds into it! I don’t have to dig 🪏! I toss garbage 🗑️ in, cover it with cardboard and some store bought organic fertilizer! I love it! I’ve expanded my garden since then! I love gardening!

I love that there´s so many butterflies you can see on the background, just goes to show how healthy of a garden you have<3

Rain barrel mod, have a layer of screen on the top of barrel to keep mosquitoes out/in

You have to go through a lot of these DIY videos, but sometimes you get a good one.

I’ve done a few few of these. I’ve done the cardboard thing. I’m using cinderblocks actually right now for a small sunflowers in my backyard. I put cardboard down to keep the weeds from the neighbors house from sneaking in and then a cinderblock on top of that. Sunflowers in the cinderblocks are probably 10 feet tall and they shouldn’t be so I don’t know why that is.


I work for a wire and cable company and they have these things called new plastic spools that have hundreds and hundreds of feet of wire on well when they’re empty the company just throw them away and I’ve been collecting them for the last two years so now I have 32 of them.

They’re basically 4 gallon buckets with a giant hole in the bottom and I’ve worked it out that they could be pats.
I’ve grown green beans have an eggplant for five different cut, tomato, cucumber, zucchini, cilantro, all different kind of things these things

I once grew a giant morning glory vine from a crack in the sidewalk next to my porch

I have done really fine potting soil by collecting mole hills, they do the work for you! I usually fill the pots/trays and leave them a few weeks to let any weeds germinate before sowing any seeds.

I have done the PVC pipe tower and had amazing success. I grow strawberries in rain gutters on the porch railing. It works great. And until all the plastic seeping into our foods became common knowledge, I had my lettuce and spinach growing in soda bottles made into a daisy chain for vertical gardening. Lots of success. Beautiful plants and produced a lot of food like that. Now, I use big mouth mason jars and a pool noodle cut to hold the plants and daisy chain them. Trying to get completely away from plastics. We rent and barely any space for a garden so vertical as much as I possibly can do. There are some great diy ideas that the experts say won't work that actually work very well. Just saying.

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I found trying the rose in honey or not but in a potato made the squirrels very happy when they then dig them up.

Hey, could you do a garden to table video? I'd love to see your process of harvesting, preserving, storing and cooking all your different foods!

I love to see people passionate about gardening.