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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
Introduction This article was revised on 11 Mar 2015 Keeping poultry, like chickens, ducks, and quail etc is great fun but sometimes we need to control where these animals go for the safety of the animals and for our peace of mind. That's where a good quail/chicken run can become a handy semi or fully
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
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
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
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
My DIY dog proof fence for my free-range chicken area is about 6 weeks old now and I am extremely happy with how it turned out. I could have paid several thousand dollars to have a fencing contractor come and do this job but I did it myself for a fraction of the cost that
Here’s a cheap and easy way to build a compost making machine three bays side-by-side utilising recycled wooden pallets to make compost for even the biggest of gardens. All serious gardeners make their own compost – it’s just a given – because good gardeners know the benefits and nutrients that can be gained from recycling
Tim’s the boy from the bush and he not back in town because he hates it… Well, maybe not town but he definitely hates the city and every one of those Claytons greenie, soft skinned, whinging, people who live in it (especially the politicians). Nup, Tim has time on his hands but none for those
Self Sufficient Me is a blog about self-sustainment by growing our own produce (plant/animal), and self-fulfilment by looking after our health (physical/mental) through exercise and slowing life down a little.
