Home Made / DIY Re-useable Plant Stakes

I figured out this idea mainly out of frustration, the basic story most of us have experienced is: You go out and buy a bunch of bamboo canes from your garden centre store and by the next season some of them have already molded and started rotting down!
This is not very sustainable and in turn ensures the consumer keeps coming back, the other thing to note (slightly deceptive too) is that these canes are sometimes painted or tinted a green colour, although it doesn’t say this on the packaging, I assumed this paint also served as a preservative / anti fungal coat to prevent rotting hence why I bought this in lots when I started Gardening before discovering Permaculture …. but no, it’s just colour to look enticing, has no real value at all really.

Smaller Re-Useable Bamboo Stake supporting a Broad Bean on a very windy Permaculture Garden

Anyway, first off you need a supply of bamboo, bamboo does need thinning out and it can be spotted from a distance so you should be able to see which of your neighbours have a batch and you can go ask them! If they or their gardener don’t thin out you can ask if you can do it for them and payment will be all the felled bamboo!
Another thing is you should definitely reserve a space in your garden for a bamboo mini plantation if you follow permaculture methods or at least, if you are a keen gardener, instructions as follows:

Step #1: Get Bamboo Canes (to your own length requirements), Pliers and Wire Cutters

Step #2: Measure out your wire length based on the eventual thickness of the plant stem you wish to grow, attach the wire using the pliers as above

Cheapest Fruit Trees .. Available NOW (November)

Last year’s survivors – A Plum, Apple and Cherry

I stumbled upon these accidentally last year 2013 when grocery shopping, I was skeptical at first as they were bare root fruit trees of various fruits and with my experience in purchasing bare root fruit bushes (which about 50% of the time were dead before I bought them), I decided to only buy two, plant them and if after one week the branches were still ”bendy” then I would go back and get more.
They were Apples, Pears, Cherries and Plums in ASDA for only £6 a pop!! Small varieties that, since they were root ball (meaning they don’t have a pot full of compost on the bottom, they instead have had their roots wrapped in water retaining material covered in plastic).