DIY

How to Make an IBC Wicking Bed – 2 Ways

What is a Wicking Bed? A wicking bed is a type of self-watering raised garden bed that is both water-saving and time-efficient. It has a water reservoir at the bottom and growing medium (soil) on the top, which are separated by a layer of fabric. This allows the plant roots to ‘wick’ water up as

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Best All-Purpose DIY Garden Bed Covers

They say that necessity is the mother of invention, and that saying proves to be true when it comes to my garden. These portable garden frames have turned out to be the best all-purpose DIY garden bed covers ever- but I kind of designed them by accident! They are essentially a drop-over portable greenhouse or

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How to Make an Easy DIY Worm Farm

Farming worms at home for the benefit of the garden is so fun and easy you can even get the kids involved. Worm castings are used as a fertiliser & provide an enormous nutrition boost to soils. While there are plenty of worm farms available to buy, you can make your own on the cheap

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Composting Bin Test

There are a few rules, do’s and don’ts to making compost in this way, so I thought I would start with one bin (of the 2 I have) to test how it would go and if it would go well, I will start to use the other one too. I have been using it for

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How to Make a Sump System for Rainwater Collection

Feeling limited by your water tank capacity? Need to store more water but can’t fit the tanks under your guttering? What if there was an easier way, so you could have what ever height tank you wanted, and still catch all your runoff? Well there is! It’s called a sump system. When it rains, the

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Hedgehog Hibernation House

Besides being totally adorable and super cute looking, hedgehogs are really useful animals to have in your garden. Especially because they eat a lot of snails and slugs who can’t eat your vegetables anymore! But did you know hedgehogs are on the endangered species list? The hedgehogs are struggling and their numbers have gone down

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Issues with Powdery Mildew- My Geodesic Dome Greenhouse Part 3

This article is a follow-up to ‘Problems with Light-My Geodesic dome Greenhouse Part 2’. Although I’ve been harvesting lovely vegetables from my geodesic dome and grow tunnel daily, a new problem appeared in February, just after the wet season had started. POWDERY MILDEW!! I really want to make the dome work, as it’s such an

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5 Self-Sufficient Gardening Projects for Beginners

A guest post authored by Lauren Schwartz of www.lawn.com.au There’s more to self-sufficient gardening than ornamental plants and decorative sculptures. A productive garden is a healthy garden, and one that can lead to an excellent life goal: self-sufficiency! By growing your own food and in the process caring for nature, you can make the land

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Chicken Feed Scooper Made From Coke Soda Bottle

Make a free DIY chicken feed scooper today! Here's a nice simple tip to make a DIY scooper for those who keep chickens and any other animal for that matter requiring the scooping out of feed from a bin or bag etc. The DIY feed scooper is made out of a soda/soft drink bottle, such

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Quail run inside

Quail/Chicken Run Build – Lessons Learnt

Several months prior to this article I wrote a two part “How to” article on how to build a quail or chicken run. The interest in this article has been exciting to see and I'm glad this particular project is grabbing peoples curiosity as I wasn't sure if our readers would enjoy my DIY building

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Perfume made from natural essencial oils

Making Your Own Perfumes And Colognes At Home

Introducing Jane Wilks – Guest Article Writer   Self sufficiency is made up of many disciplines and almost every day I see another great example of clever and inventive ways how people can make better use of the natural resources around them. That's what makes self sufficiency special and there's no better example of responsible use

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Permaculture what is the point graphic

Self Sufficiency – Forget Permaculture Rules & Just Follow Your Heart

In today’s society we’re constantly bombarded by rules and regulations making us conform to a certain set of community values and logic. Largely, these values, rules, and regulations are good to have and keep our communities organised and functioning. However, the sheer overall success of implementing and upholding laws both locally and globally has led

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home made orange cordial close up glass with ice

How To Make Home-Made Orange Cordial “Splitza”

When the end of orange season comes, more often than not we are left with a surplus of this wonderful fruit, which is a really good position for me to be in because it forces me to do something with the extra bounty before they go bad. Orange marmalade is great, fresh orange juice is

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