Millie shares her favourite thrifty DIY tips for gardening without the price tag!
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Free plant food
Nutrients are key to plant growth and you can buy them in a bag, or you can collect them in the form of food scraps, grass clippings, coffee grounds, and more – you just need a compost bin to turn them into a form the plants can use.
Millie also collects manure from local sources and composts it for 6-8 months to make sure it’s safe for the garden. Chickens are another great source – half of their manure is produced at night so it’s easy to collect by placing trays underneath where the chickens roost.
It’s important to work the manure or scraps into the compost pile so that the nitrogen the plants need isn’t lost into the atmosphere. You can also cover the pile with straw to keep it all in.
It’s a Material World
Materials are everywhere. Sticks and string can create a simple fence to keep dogs out of beds, ladders are an instant trellis, broken stones or concrete can be turned into pavers. There’s no end to what you can use in the garden, the only limit is your imagination!
Tools ‘R’ Cool
Buy the best and make the rest. Spend money on things that will last a long time like a good quality watering can or secateurs.
Millie’s DIY digging stick, or gannan in the local Taungurung language, is perfect for running rows and making planting holes. A couple of hose clamps, some wire and stick form the perfect weeder for vegetable rows without having to bend down.
Plants…they grow on trees!
“A good quality plant is incredibly good value. I value the knowledge, the effort and the skill that it takes to grow them.” Whist this is another area to spend some money on, there are plenty you can grow yourself from seeds or cuttings.
Collecting from the wild requires a specific permit, but collecting from friends and other local places with permission is an easy place to start.
Most fruit trees are grown by budding or grafting to get an exact copy of the parent plant. But some, like peaches, grow plants from seed that are quite similar to the parent. Millie pops peach seeds into the fridge for about 6 weeks to replicate a cold winter – this is called stratification, and it will help them sprout quickly once the warmer weather hits. It may or may not work, but it’s worth the experiment!
Gardening can cost the earth or next to nothing. Finding, making, and growing things yourself is so much more valuable than money, and it also means more time in the garden and less in the shops!
Featured Plants
TREE VIOLET Melicytus dentatus
COMMON WALLABY GRASS Rytidosperma caespitosum
Filmed on Taungurung Country, Central Victoria
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30 Comments
Amazing information
Love these ideas.
Great content. I have a similar channel , check it out & let's exchange ideas. Keep up the good work.
Where do I buy one of those watering cans??
I Love this Channel BEAUTIFUL
this year I have started with compost and I am getting good results.Although I bought it for 10 dollars every month, this year I am trying to make my own compost.. thanks for the video
Miss you guys!
Thank you Millie! There are more than a few gardeners doing it tough in the pandemic and still want to look after their plant family because they give so much back in terms of our mental health. Your encouragement will help us ensure that our gardens are truly unique looking and sustainable. Cheers!
Thanks Milli !
When are ya's coming back ???
Really missing you guys 😥😢😭💔
Hi millie you and I think a like ! I also like to garden on a budget,
Living in Canada, I’m sooooo jealous of your gardening!
what direction does the wall face where the seedlings and stuff were left? This is where I get confused. Is a North or West facing wall better?
Thank you!! Been a gardener for years but great interesting ideas!
the false economy of not buying real fertilizer. but of course if you dont value your time and effort, it sounds thrifty. after six months you may or may not have finished compost, depending on materials used and effort put in, which has unknown and variable nutrient analysis and takes yet more work and empty (unproductive) veggie patch to apply to.
if you get any straw or manure where certain herbicides were applied, that lovely magic compost kills your tomatoes.
i'd rather buy a $100 bag of 20-20-20 + TE complete fertilizer that lasts a whole year and grows veg, and can be easily applied any time via syphon injection.
if you give veg barely any nutrients and mostly all at one time, takes forever to have any harvest.
Wish you would tell us what zone ,all these gardens are in. Trying to translate to my zone 7 in Oklahoma. Thanks! Love this channel!
Green Gold
For 3 years I have done my own compost from leftover food and eggshells. but my overall concern are the ants there are a lot of ants that get inside and it makes it hard to use that compost with just a million ants inside it does anybody have any tips on how to get rid of the ants?
I would crack the shell of the apricot though? Btw i live in subtropical area would i need to freeze it
I always love Millie’s enthusiasm
Millie is so good at engaging the audience, love her advice!
<3
awesome.thank you Millie!
How to make that weeding tool please 🙂
So clever, thank you Millie!
Great ideas. Will give it a go.
What brand of secateurs do you use ?
I actually cultivated a number of stone fruits (they started growing in my veggie patch when I was using it as a compost as well (I'm more organised now). A tip I found was to actually break the stone open… the seed inside can then either be planted as it is or you can even remove the brown "skin" from it to help encourage it to grow.
I've transplanted those fruit trees now in a big garden shake up and I'm looking forward to spring to see if they really take off in their new spots.
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Hi milly it's been a year !is there a up date on the peace trees??😀🌱
💚💚💚