Joesgarden

Today we are back and I am showing you what to do with your real Christmas tree, to waste nothing and stop it ending up just being thrown away. A lot of us are going to be throwing out our Christmas trees over the next week, but instead of just letting them go to waste they have so many amazing garden uses. I like to remove the branches, which is pretty easy on Christmas trees as the wood is quite soft. These branches can then be used as a much to help protect your garden soil, as a ground covering. This will help improve your soil for the next growing season, and works especially well if you are growing plants that prefer slightly acidic soil too. The needles also are fantastic if you want to infuse some vinegar to make an all purpose natural cleaner, which can be used around the house. The longer you let the needles infuse the vinegar the more fragrant and powerful it becomes. If you are worried about the smell of vinegar, please don’t as this disappears if you leave the mixture to infuse for a week. And finally the trunk can be used as a rustic plant support for climbing plants such as runner beans, clematis, climbing roses, tomatoes, cucumbers or my favourite which are garden peas. I hope you are all having a lovely week so far, thank you for watching, and I love you all, Joe #zerowaste #christmastree #gardening #Sustainability

Today we are back and I am showing you how to use some of your common house hold waste, to help grow your own food at home, for free 😊 When it comes to growing your own food at home, while it can be handy to have a few tools and bit of kit, if you don’t have any, this shouldn’t put you off. You can actually take a few bits of common waste and turn them into handy bits of gardening kit. I have so many fun ways to upcycle garden tools, but here are 4 of my favourites to get started and please let me know if you would like to see more, and I will make another video. Fruit punnets (even better with a lid) can be turned into a very effective seed starting propagator, but just make sure to add a few drainage holes in the bottom if it doesn’t already have some. Tins can be used to make beautiful vertical planters, by simply poking a drainage hole in the bottom, and I add some plant safe paint to jazz them up a little. It’s worth noting these are only suitable for very small plants, otherwise the plant will soon outgrow the tin. Toilet roll holders make ideal seed starting tubes, and the best part is they can be planted out whole, which does not disturb the roots, keeping the plant healthy and happy. And finally if you poke a few holes in the cap of your milk cartons, they make an ideal diy watering can. If you poke another hole in the handle it works even better 😊 I hope you are all having a lovely week, thank you for watching, and I love you all 😊💚🌱 #zerowaste #gardening #Sustainability #gardeningtips

Today we are back and I am sharing my all time favourite zero waste recipe again, as it’s perfect to make during these cold winter nights, and not only do you get a delicious snack, you get a free plant fertiliser too. If you are anything like me quite often your bananas sit in the bowl and start to go a bit brown. Now while they are completely edible still, here is a quick and simple way to use them, that isn’t banana bread. Simply mush down your bananas until they are nice and smooth, add brown sugar and self raising flour, roll until they are about 1cm thick, sprinkle some cinnamon, slice and roll into buns and bake on gas mark 5 for about 25 minutes. This will give you the most delicious zero waste banana cinnamon swirls, which truly are amazing. Now the mixture can be incredibly sticky so please add flour to your surface and rolling pin and wet your hands to stop this all becoming a sticky mess. For every 150g of banana I use 110g of flour and 1 cup of brown sugar. Bake the skins with the swirls and then you can crush these down into a powder which makes a great plant boosting food. Banana skins are packed full of nutrients our plants love, and by breaking it down into powder, it stops flies in your soil, and lasts a lot longer than the viral banana water I’m sure we have all seen online. I hope you are having a lovely week, I love you all, Joe 😊🌱💚 #zerowaste #banana #Sustainability #ecotips #gardentips #plantfood

Today we are back and I thought I would show you the entire growing journey of the potatoes we planted back in August, in the hopes we could grow our own fresh potatoes to use for Christmas lunch. This week it was time to harvest our Christmas containers which I was hopeful would be full of potatoes. It’s always so exciting to harvest crops that grow under the soil like potatoes as you have no idea what you are going to get. If you are wondering why I cover the potato foliage back over with soil once it appears, that is to stop the sunlight reaching the tubers. If sun gets to your potatoes then they will turn green, and it’s not a myth, green potatoes are actually poisonous. I love to grow potatoes in containers and pots, as it’s super easy to harvest them and they take up very little room. Just make sure your containers have drainage holes in the bottom, otherwise your tubers may rot. Simply give your potatoes a big water once or twice a week and when they are in full bloom they will benefit from a by weekly feed with a fertiliser such as liquid seaweed. And after about 60- 120 days after planting you will have your very own fresh potatoes. If you want smaller potatoes but lots of them plant more per container, whereas plant less if you want bigger but fewer potatoes 😊🌱 Thank you so much for watching, and I love you all, Joe 😊🙏💚🥔 #growingpotatoes #containergardening #gardentoplate #potatoharvest #christmaspotatoes

Today we are back and I am sharing with you another of my favourite zero waste ways to use up your in season citrus peels. This time of the year, I can’t get enough of citrus fruits and you can use the peels to make the most delicious traditional, seasonal snack. This quick zero waste recipe couldn’t be easier, all you need are a few in season citrus peels, which you then slice into batons. Now it’s worth noting I’m using home grown fruits, if you are using store bought wash the peels in warm water first. Boil the peels for about 15 minutes, then for the best results it’s a good idea to drain away the water and boil in new water for another 15 minutes. This helps to remove the really strong citrus flavour. If you want a very mild sweet, you can even drain the water and boil in fresh water for a third 15 minutes. Then just make a simple syrup by adding equal parts sugar and water to a pan, and once the sugar has melted add in the peels. The longer you let these simmer the better, but they will be ready after about 15 minutes (I leave them to slow simmer for an hour for the best results). Leave your peels to dry, and you will have the most delicious zero waste Christmas candies. You can even add them to a nice jar with a bow as a little diy gift! They are delicious as they are, but for the best results I like to dip them in melted chocolate and then pop them in the fridge until they set 😊🌱 I hope you are all having a lovely week, and I love you all, Joe #citrusfruit #zerowaste #candiedfruit #seasonalcooking