Sustainable ways to save money in the garden

0:00Hello, I'm Elizabeth, an obsessive backyard gardener who might be able to offer you a couple of tips. And I'm Keith, a landscape consultant, and I'm also passionate about gardening. The one thing we both have in common is muddy boots. A self-sufficient and sustainable garden means less money spent, less resources used, more enjoyment for you and better results for the environment. Today on muddy boots we're going to provide you with strategies to help keep your garden happy and your bank balance healthy. Who doesn't love that? Keith? Yes, I do. Keith? I do. My first tip for saving money in the garden, and I think it might be yours as well, is to repair your soil before doing anything else. The soil, the soil, the soil. Exactly. Am I right? Yep. The same as building a house. Yeah.

1:00All right, you don't just go out and build a house on dirt, you've got to put the foundations down first in order to make sure that everything above it is going to be successful. And the same thing applies to you in your garden if you're going to be putting any sorts of plants in. So the more preparation, the more amendments that you can put into your soil is going to give you the biggest return for the bank and the biggest bang for your buck. Exactly. You might be spending a little bit of money to start with, but in the long term, you will be spending so much less because you're not going to be constantly buying fertilizers and things to try and amend whatever the problem is in your soil. Your plants will be bouncing with joy because they've got great soil for the roots below them. And so long term joy, long term happiness, fantastic. Absolutely. Okay. Now, I think most of us have either a compost bin or a worm farm in our gardens, making our own compost reduces the amount of organic waste going to landfill and using it in our garden adds valuable nutrients to the soil again, helping it to produce healthy plants

2:00and also help retain moisture. So that means less water is used, less water bill, less money spent. Exactly. And the best things you can add to your soil for that is compost. Yeah. Compost compost compost. And then of course, we came across some vints from Clyde compost, who's introduced us to lignite humane, which is brown coal, and he told us that that can hold up to 200% more moisture, which is just absolutely amazing. So if you imagine putting that sort of product into your soil, you know, you're already setting yourself up for so much success. Yeah. And then of course, on top of that is your compost, which is an already readily available food for your plants. And then all you've got to do after that is to put a big dose of mulch over the top, whether it be an organic mulch like pine bark or even another organic mulch, which is like granitic sand, and then just a slight top up all, you know, after that with just some

3:03fertilizers, some organic fertilizers. That's all we need to do. And mulching is a great way to whole-boister, prevent weeds, it's got multiple benefits. And as you say, there are multiple types of mulch. What are the best ones that you would recommend? Well, it depends on the client, you know. So we're talking, you're asking me a question on how I would address the client's needs. And therefore, the first thing I'd say is what do you like to look off, what do you like to feel off, and that then gives me some ideas. So if someone wants to go with a bark mulch, then I would recommend a pine bark. And I'd recommend a fine pine bark. So there's something down to about 10 mil aggregate size. Because that's not going to be robbing the soil as much of nitrogen as a bark mulch, like a red gum bark or some of these types of barks. Because if the bark is thicker, the bark is from a different part of the tree.

4:04So Eucalyptus mulch, for instance, is from the inner part of the actual tree. So the heartwood of the tree, whereas pine bark is from the outer side of the tree. So it's not in the same process of the nitrogen out of the soil as the other is. Okay. What sort of thickness, if you recommend a certain top of a bark, what sort of thickness should they melt? Well, I always sort of specify between 50 and 75 mil, whether it be a bark or whether we go for something like granitic sand, the granitic sand is brilliant because moisture and air can still percolate down through it. It's like walking on beach sand, another hard, compacted beach sand, so it's a lovely surface to walk on. And it's also adding trace elements and minerals back into the soil, not a lot, but some. And you only have to put it on once, and that's it. You only have to do it once. That is it. It is so good. It is great. So good. So you don't have to keep reapplying at what you do with all the other mulchers. I just love that, and that's why I'm getting it, so I'm very excited about that.

5:06Okay. My next tip is to plant a head, always plant a head when making plans for the garden. So you take some time to plan your spring garden, for example, the season or two seasons beforehand. That way, you know exactly what plants you need before heading to the nursery, rather than getting down there and going, oh, I like the look of that one and that one and that one. So you can become quite expensive. So if you know exactly what you want, then you save money in that regard. You do. And perhaps the best way to address that is to actually do a plan if you garden or get a plan of your garden drawn, because then you know exactly what you're setting yourself up for. And if you do a small section of a garden, you can do it to scale. You can do it to a plant's size. So great size is one to one hundred. So for every one, one centimeter equals one meter. And then you can work out how many plants are going to fit into that one meter area. If they're small little perennial plants or if they're a tree, you know how big a tree is going to cover the area. So working to a plan is going to be the best way to set yourself up for success.

6:10It makes it the most productive way of doing it. It gives you a thin idea that you've put a bit of effort into the way you're thinking about how the garden is going to work, because you're looking at setting up the different heights of the plant. So you're not hiding a small plant over the back, which is what's happened to me this year in my trial garden. It's been an absolute, absolute disgrace to my, I'm embarrassed by it. That wasn't your fault, though. You didn't know the plants were going to get as tall as they did. Oh, no. That was just the way that it worked out, just real shocker. Okay. So now, that's a good segue onto the next one. Make sure to choose the right plants for the right conditions. So they thrive rather than battling to survive and then have to be replaced. Yep. Like you're going to be replacing those tall ones. Well, and the beauty about doing mine is it's a trial garden. So I get to test them so that I'm not going to be making those mistakes on my clients' gardens. Which is it. Yeah. So you've got to plan the whole thing through properly. Yeah. You know, think about the sorts of plants, and you know, you mentioned the fact that you've

7:10got to pick the right plants for the right conditions, and those right conditions are lots of things. Not just necessarily our plant water requirement, could be a shade requirement, or it could be any number of things. It's the climate. Yeah. You can't go sticking certain plants in areas that you get severe frost because they're not going to last. Exactly. Exactly. Growing perennials rather than annuals is another way to save money because annuals are obviously only last one year, and need to be replaced. If you choose a mix of perennials that flower at different times of the year, that gives the garden interested all times. Absolutely. It looks fantastic that way. Yeah. You've got longevity, and I always go back to perennials because even if you just put a few in, you're going to have long-lasting flowering plants that, you know, are going to be flowering for five, six, eight months of the year, you know, and year after year. Yeah. Yeah. Using native plants also that are suited to your local environment is another good idea.

8:10They usually take, usually take less work to maintain. They're required less water, and they thrive better than other perennials. So they provide, oh, they also provide food and shelter to animals to get in the wildlife to come in as well. They get all the benefits from that. And they're a plant that really can look after itself because they're used to the conditions that they're actually going to be growing in. So you have to look at your indigenous plants, for sure. Great idea. Also, to shop for plants during the cooler months, because I'd like with bare-rooted plants, they're so much cheaper than if you're buying an advanced plant, and I'd like a tree. So autumn or winter is a good time to be shopping for plants as well. And that takes a little bit of forward planning on your planting. Planting or planning. Planting and planting. You know what sort of size the plant that it's going to be and get to. But yeah, that's a great way. I buy most of my fruit trees, for instance, bare-rooted in the middle of winter. Because they're just so much cheaper, and they take off so much quicker, providing you

9:15prune them back accordingly in the first year. Which you'll teach us all about. And do constantly teach us all that. And a good way to actually spend no money at all is to take cuttings as much as you can. So many plants can be divided, and by doing so, this helps prevent overcrowding. And provides you with more plants that are absolutely no cost at all. Things like hydrangeas, geraniums, irises, sedums, I mean, there's a massive list of plants that can be divided. You know, most of the plants can, I mean, even things like your ground covers, they're very easily divided, you know, your lambs ears. They're so simple to break up and repot and gift. Yes. You know, it's a wonderful thing to be able to give some plants to some friends that, you know, were... And to swap. And to swap, exactly. They may have something that you don't have that you'd like. Seeds. Now, this is your... Seeds are your baby, really? Oh, they are. I love them. You love them. They are so much cheaper than buying seedlings or advanced plants.

10:16Well, you need the seeds, some potting mix, a light source, some DIY seed pots, like you're one of the pots. That's where you couldn't... So if you want to tell us about the seeds, tell us about your pots, you know, what has... Well, how does it all work? How do you buy them from? What's your best... Well, I think about the sorts of plants that I'm going to be growing. And then I will think about who the supplier, the best supplier is going to be. Now, if we're talking about things like vegetables, then, you know, there's a great company called the seed collection. That's... They just won off. But, you know, I can buy a packet of their seeds, and there might be 50 to 100 seeds in each packet. And then they're two to three dollars each. Well, you know, you think about the value and what's a seed cost you for that, for the return that it gets on you. So the thing that you've got to do then, once you've got your seed, is think about the best way of getting the most value out of those seeds. And that is planting at the right time.

11:17So I buy always plant on the moon calendar. I buy the best possible potting mix that's available, because, you know, you're going to be spending more on a quality product. And then I think about the cheapest way, like, I can get a pot. And there's nothing cheaper than a paper pot. No. And, you know, we can... People can go back and contact me and say, listen, how do you make a paper pot? And I'm very happy to share that with them. And there's a new video on that. Yeah, we'll do a video on that as well, yeah. So, what sort of potting mix, so you don't use a seed saving mix? No, I never use a seed raising mix. I just think it's a seed raising mix is a step too far, you know, like that old story, a step too far. No, there's no need. If you buy a quality potting mix and you plant the seed at the right depth, which is twice the width in depth, you keep it moist until germination's taken place, then all that goodness in that potting mix is there available for that seedling. Not like a seed raising mix, which is a very, very open mix that you've got to constantly

12:18water and attend to. And then once the plant gets up, there's really no goodness in that seed raising mix. So you've got to then pot it up into another pot, whereas doing it the way we do it into a quality potting mix to start with, bang, the job's done. It's just one process until it gets big enough and then you plant the whole little seedling, the paper pot in the ground, you've sequestered carbon and you've not disturbed the root system on it one little bit. It's a great way of doing it. And saving those seeds is another cost saving, do you do that? Yeah, I do. And at the moment, I've got some beans, baby sunbeams, which I bought the seeds from diggers. They're the only crowd that have this baby sunbeam, which is a basketball sized plant that produces an incredible amount of beans. It's just amazing. Lessies had to put them in the freezer. We've got so many of these little baby sunbeams. So I've pulled out most of the plants. I've probably had about eight plants.

13:19I've pulled out six and I've left two of the healthiest looking plants just to produce more pods, which will, they'll dry on the actual plant. And when the actual pods have gone this beautiful papery brown colour and they're totally dry, I'll then open those up, put them onto a piece of paper. I can stick that piece of paper where air is getting to it, a little bit of sunlight, and just ensure that those seeds have dried off totally. And then we can then put those into a little packet, with a little silica gel packs that you get when you buy new pair of shoes or new handbag. I've got plenty of those. And you put that in there and that just takes the humidity out of the paper bag. And you put that paper bag into a plastic container and straight into the fridge. And that will last for 10, 15 years that packet. I was about to ask that, how long did I ask? 10, 15 years. Yeah, I've got seeds in there that would be probably eight, nine years old and we get a hundred percent strike rate still. Wow. And if you think about that, the perfect conditions for saving seeds is constant temperature

14:26and a very, very low humid environment. And the ferros that had their great big tombs, miles, you know, I'm going to 100 meters down below the soil. They found seeds in there with 5,000 years old, took them out and they germinated. So I was just incredible. And it's incredible. Okay. All right. Let's talk about these vegetables. If you're not already doing so, creating a food garden is a simple and effective way to both reduce your impact on the environment and to save you cash. I'm really looking forward to starting our new veggie garden out there. And we all know how much joy Keith gets from his. There is nothing better than eating fresh, pesticide-free vegetables that you've grown with your own hands. And the vegetable garden can be grown in a large garden bed, it can be grown in a container, it can be grown in so many conditions. Absolutely. As long as there's lots of sun. It doesn't matter how small or how large a space. So tell us all about growing vegetables, Keith, in a flat shell. Yep. Well, if you've got soil, then all you need to do is improve that soil.

15:29That's where you've currently got a tree or a shrub or something else. There's always a place in the garden that you can actually put a vegetable in. And sometimes that can look fantastic. And then where you've got a normal garden set up with shrubs and little trees and so forth. Providing that's getting enough sunlight and we need probably four to six hours of sunlight, then that's a great space to actually put some good organic soil in there and put a seedling in and then just watch it grow. Yeah. And there's things like five coloured silver beaks which look fantastic. Growing in amongst the regular plants in your garden or the Tuscan kale looks absolutely sensational because it's got that wonderful structure look about the garden. But here at your place, you're lucky enough to have a great spot outside there when you've got your raised beds from Modbosks, which are all filled up, which would have been fun. No, it wasn't fun, but we did it and we're still sitting straight, we're OK.

16:29And we have to add the lignite humates yet, so I'm going to do that. But yes, we're then going to think, well, what am I going to put in there? Oh, well, I'm just down the road. So we'll be putting some extra seed for you. They're very, very lucky. OK, so now also when it comes to planting vegetables, it's important not to overplant, isn't it? Because if you overplant, it's a waste of precious food and we don't do that. That was something that used to think about all the time and used to be very mindful about the size of the plant and the year it's got to grow in. Until I met an organic farmer who I said to him, I'm about to put some cauliflower in, but I hate those great, big heads of cauliflower because you cut it in half and you'll use half of it and then you'll throw the other half out a few days later because you've got it where it is. What he said to me was, plant your cauliflower close together and therefore that means that the plant's competing for space so it's not going to produce the same size being there.

17:34It'll produce a small head, which is just perfect for what we want. So yeah, they've got to be pushed in fairly close, you know, I mean, if you're talking about a normal cauliflower will take up probably around about 50 centimetre diameter, well, if you planted two in that particular space, so 25 centimetres apart, then you're only going to get smaller heads on your actual cauliflower. And the same applies to all of those sorts of vegetables. Yes, what a great tip. It is. You know, it's commercial. People got that. Yeah, that's a fantastic tip. Okay. Moving on. Oh, well, I was also actually going to say about preserving because that's something else you can do if you've got too much. Yeah, and we do a lot of that, you know, you know, we're about to, we're about to start doing pesata. So we've got a mile of tomatoes, but we've already dried some, I never, we never got to try any of those. I've got a particular son that has a particular liking for our dried tomatoes. So he's got both lots of that so far, but they'll come out, you know, and we'll dry those

18:38tomatoes. We'll season them, we'll apply, put them in bottles with oil, olive, good quality olive oil. And then we've got them all year round. Yeah. And the same applies to so many things. You can blanch excess vegetables, freeze them in a way you go. So even bottling, you know, you can bottle things. I mean, even your husband Brits come up with a bottling for some, a cute canvas, a beautiful cute canvas with a giver. Yeah. A million, a million to cute canvas that I handed you away living in. He did well. He did well. He did well. He did a great job with that. Fantastic. All right. We could talk about that forever, but we can't, we're going to move on. Next week's podcast, funnily enough, concentrates on alternatives to a traditional lawn. Mm-hmm. Now, a lush green and weed-free lawn looks fantastic, but it does require a lot of water, fertilizer, and time to keep it looking good. So you can have much more, a much more sustainable landscape by reducing the area planted in grass and replace it with ornamental grasses, low growing shrubs or ground cupboards.

19:41So find out more on next week's podcast about that. What do you want to say about that? Wait till next week. Wait till next week. I think it's probably the best thing to do. Maybe you'll listen to next week as well. All right. There's something I'd like to just bring up, because it's something that I've noticed that really affects how I buy things. Yeah. I went to the big green warehouse to purchase some, some herbicide, some stuff that I want to kill some weeds with. And I found that the product that I wanted was now longer available. And when I had a good look around, I spoke to one of the girls who was working there. She said to me, this is their new push now. So they're pushing away from buying bulk product that you dilute down yourself and use with sprayers. And they're pushing you to RTUs, which is ready to use sprays. Now those sprays you can reuse, provide you, you've got bulk chemical, you haven't got bulk chemical anymore. Yeah, no. So those things then go into the landfill or they're going to go into whatever recycling

20:42bin. So what I had to do then was to get online and have a look at that product that I was looking for and find another source. So bunnings have lost me in that in that respect. Also bunnings are doing this. Bunnings are doing this. Bunnings are doing that. And I've sent them an email and the departments come back and said, well, we're going to get onto this. And I've never heard of other things coming since then. So it's a real knock in the head to the way that people want to do things. Yeah. We're losing choices and that really annoys the hell out of me. So you bought the online? I put the order in on the Monday and I had the product that I wanted by Wednesday and it came from Queensland. Okay. Can I, will you discuss what product that was or not? Yeah. It was a product called OCP, one of their OCP slashes. So it's an organic herbicide, but they're just pushing you all the time into these stupid little sprays that, you know, they're getting greater problem. It's all about money. Yeah. We're supposed to be looking after in our environment. This is exactly what we're talking about right now.

21:42How to be more sustainable and how to be more vulnerable and that's why I want to bring that up. Good old bunning. Sorry. Sorry. That's why I want to bring that up. You've got to do the best thing for you in terms of the dollar that you've got to spend rather than have someone else make those choices for you in environment as well. Yeah. And the environment. Yeah. Okay. Moving on. Planting a shade tree or shrub can help to reduce energy costs as well. It's going to help to keep the house cool in summer. And if it's a deciduous tree, it can also let the sun in during winter, which could potentially reduce winter heating costs as well. We are really feeling the heat in our house is summer because we have absolutely no trees because we've got rid of them all. And I cannot wait to get planted again because it's bloody hot in here, not today, but it has been. Yeah. And that's just the environment, unfortunately, we've got. And the more plants you have, the cooler the environment is going to be. And it's not just shade trees. It's having, you know, greenery. Greenery. That's what creates a micro environment that just makes things so much more pleasant to

22:45be part of. Exactly. Exactly. Well, we could go on and on and on, but these are just a few ideas that can be action towards a well planned and sustainable garden, which will last for years with little cost and less maintenance, choosing plants wisely, shopping at the right place and time, and using some ingenuity can save you money without sacrificing any of your gardening goals. Thank you for listening to Muddy Boots. For more information on today's podcast, please go to muddyboots.net.au and happy gardening. Thank you. Bye.