1. Weed tea

Sorry to all the stoners out there, this isn't what you thought.
If there is one thing that grows in any garden it's weeds and our garden is no exception. Weed tea is a way of making a high nutrient liquid fertiliser. It takes about 6 weeks but we got the process rolling today. It makes a great fertiliser and renders the weeds compostable.

If you want to do it too you will need a big container, tub or other water-holding vessel, a flowerpot and a big lot of weeds. The flowerpot acts as a big tea bag that can go into the compost after it's all brewed.

We used an old record crate and a flower pot that seemed designed to fit perfectly.

Like this.

Pack the offending plant matter in tightly.

For tufty grass cut off the roots so they can't feed the stems.

Add some water till it's all covered.

Cover the whole lot so no light gets in and let it brew for 5 or 6 weeks.

The other reason I wanted to clear out the weeds was to give our poor lemon tree a chance. It was being choked by cooch grass and so getting little to no water. The leaves were turning a distressing shade of yellow and falling off.

Before

After

Now the tree can get a drink it should start to bounce back. Hopefully the compost and mulch I added will help too. Cass and I got an old bath some time ago and turned it into a garden bed. We put a small aquaduct made of roof tiles from the plug hole to drain the bed and to give more water to the lemon tree.


Watering the bed


Aquaduct

The Gardening Australia Fact Sheet.