Save Money On Garden Trimmer Strimmer Line String Or Cord

Hello!

Its time to get the garden trimmer (in the UK we call them Strimmers) out again as the spring arrives.  Time to look to see how much line cord you have and to feed it in.  But here is an Amazing Money Saving tip I use every time.  These machines are made to automatically feed the line cord out when it gets caught up or jammed.  The idea it to save you time.

However, its extremely wasteful of line cord and isn't good at cutting through thick grass or weeds.  Using this simple tip your line cord use will be minimal and the cutting power will be vastly improved.

Please Don't ignore this tip, at least try it once and you won't be disappointed.

Regards Malcolm aka #fixed1tMONEYSAVINGtips #fixed1tGARDENINGtips

Are Potato Grow Bags Better Than A Compost Bag For Growing Potatoes?

I've been growing potatoes in specially purchased 'Potato Grow Bags' for many years.  The crops aren't particularly large but they are delicious and its very easy and rewarding to do and something that the kids could do with a little help and supervision.

Growing Potatoes is simple, they are:

Easy to plant
Easy to maintain
Easy to harvest
Taste Great

The costs are pretty negligible:

Potato Grow Bags
Fresh Compost (from a garden centre)
Rotted horse manure (often free at a local stable)
Potato Tubers (potatoes)

The main cost items are the Potato Grow Bags and the bags of compost.

This year I started the chitting and planting process with 4 new Potato Grow Bags and put three chitting potato tubers in each bag.  After planting the tubers in the bags, I realised I had a number of spares left over and rather than throw them away, I thought it would be interesting to grow the remainder in the empty plastic bags the new compost came in.  These bags tend to be very thick painted on the outside by most importantly Black and None See Through on the inside.  I planted them all at the same time, using the same feed and water regime and harvested them when the plants had died back leaving thick white stems sticking out of the bags, within a few days of each other.

Although not a scientific experiment, in this way I could see whether the planting bag made any difference to the crop yield, i.e.  if you got more potatoes for the extra cost of the 'Potato Grow Bag' versus the black painted compost bag.

The first bag I harvested was the Potato Grow Bag

and below is the link to the video:

Harvesting Home Grown Potatoes From My Potato Grow Bag

After brushing the loose earth of the potatoes I weighed them, the black plastic compost bag delivered a crop of:

1406 grams of fresh potatoes (just over 3 lb)

Sao what about the potatoes in the compost bag?

below is the video:

Harvesting My Potatoes From A Compost Black Bag

After brushing the loose earth of the potatoes I weighed them, the black plastic compost bag delivered a crop of:

1245 grams of fresh potatoes (just over 2 lb 7 oz)

1406 - 1245 = 161grams (just over .35 lb)

There the using the potato grow bag increased the yield by just over 11%.

Therefore, from this casual experiment I concluded that the potato grow bags are better than black plastic bags for growing potatoes, but given the sized of the crop, and the additional expenses of the bags, it is more cost effective to grow the potatoes using the Compost Bag than it is to invest in specialised Potato Grow Bags.

#fixed1tgardening

Harvesting Home Grown Potatoes From My Potato Grow Bag Sack

It turns out some people through away tomato plants with green tomatoes still on them as they haven't ripened.  What a waste, they can be ripened indoors.



If you didn't watch the video to the end you will have missed the link to the second video in this series, the link is here below:

Harvesting My Potatoes From A Compost Black Bag

#fixed1tgardening

Harvesting My Potatoes From A Compost Black Bag

If you watched my first Potato video, you’ll remember that I bought custom Potato Growing Sacks to grow Potatoes in, and I harvested them and weighed them in video 1.  At the same time I planted three Potato tubers in the Potato Growing Sack I planted 3 others in the plastic bag the compost came in for devilish  comparison.  

If you haven't seen the previous video, click on the link below:

Harvesting Home Grown Potatoes From My Potato Grow Bag Sack

Here is the video of the Compost Bag Harvesting.




#fixed1tgardening

Invading Ants - The War Is Over

In the last 24 hours the Ants have consumed 16 small trays of Nippon Ant Liquid

Trays Full Of Ants Eating Nippon Ant Liquid

and are no longer visiting my front door and hallway as can be seen from the latest photo below.

After 24 hours of Intense Nippon Ant Liquid Feeding The Ants Are Gone

This was the largest feeding frenzy I've seen with seasonal Ants, as they normally arrive over several days in small be increasing numbers until they are filling one or two trays a dozen or so at a time.

These ants were also much redder than ones I'd seen in the house before, and as I have a number of inflamed red bites on me from getting down and personal with them, I think they could be a problem for a curious child or adult that gets near them.  As can be seen from the videos, these Ants came on mass, with soldiers to protect the feeders,  once the first feeders reported back to the nests. It would appear it must have been a substantial nest and that the warm weather has obviously woken a lot of them early.

I'm glad I still had some Nippon Ant Liquid at hand as Debbie was only able to find single use kits from Rentokill that you throw any when empty in stores.  There is a link is below to the single use Rentokill product if you don't want the fuss.

Realistically, and from the video evidence of my last 3 posts on this blog, I think I'd have needed 6 of these double single use packs for what I achieved yesterday.

So I recommend you buy some Nippon Liquid.  

Don't wait until the Ants arrive!

If you haven't got any Nippon Liquid in the house get some ASAP, be ready,  it keeps for years. If the Ants discover the food in your kitchen, your pets food or storeroom and you have no defences to hand, they will over run you very quickly and be in every container, draw or packet they can squeeze into.

Luckily the liquid is still available on Amazon, but I suspect not for very long and as there is more money in selling single use kits, a lot more money all the big resellers are moving to kits.

 I have no doubt fighting last nights invasion would have cost me £30 + petrol in single use kits.

The Nippon Liquid can be purchased from AmazonUK

 

Or Can Be Purchased From eBay By Click On This Link

And the Milk Bottle caps you most likely throw away every few days.

Thanks for visiting my money making tips.  Please share this link with others, the Ants are coming the question is whether you or your friends are ready ;-)

fixed1t

Time-Lapse Video - Feeder Ants Emptying Home Made Feed Trays

Ants Update:  On the 8th feed and theirs numbers are growing, have quite a few bites on my hands so they Red Dark Brown Ants seem to pack quite a punch.  Better feed them again before going to bed of they could be all over the kitchen by morning.

-----------------

This video is of the 5th refill and their numbers are increasing. oops.  Can't stop now as they'll invade completely if I do.

Picture Of Ants Feeding On Nippon Liquid From Bottle Top Feeding Trays

The Nippon Liquid can be purchased from AmazonUK

 

Or Can Be Purchased From eBay By Click On This Link

And the Milk Bottle caps you most likely throw away every few days.

Thanks For Visiting

fixed1t

Fighting Home Ant Invasion With Homemade Disposable Feeding Traps And Ni...

Ants invading, found Nippon Liquid but no plastic trays, so here is a free replacement we all have.



Check out my other Money Saving Tips video by clicking on the purple link in the video.

The Nippon Liquid can be purchased from AmazonUK

 

Or Can Be Purchased From eBay By Click On This Link

Thanks For Visiting

fixed1t

Google Mobile-Friendly Test News - Testing the fixed1t Money Saving Tips blog

I've been working hard over the past week to modify all of my websites to make that fully compatible with the Google Mobile-Friendly Test edict.

I submitted:


http://fixed1t-money-saving-tips.blogspot.co.uk

It Passed

I am pleased to announce it passed, so you should therefore have no difficulties searching for anything you remember from the fixed1t Money Saving Tips blogger blog page.

Thank you for your continued support.

fixed1t

Recycling Small Cardboard Boxes - Opening Without Tearing Flap

Such A Great Solution. Recycling Small Cardboard Boxes - Opening Without Tearing Flap





Please check out my other Money Saving Tips and other fixed1t videos.



fixed1t

Re-cycling IKEA Polypropylene Plastic Cable Strapping

Re-cycling IKEA Polypropylene Plastic Cable Strapping: Perfect for gigging musicians and other cablers.







Waste Not Want Not



fixed1t

Storing Opened Superglue In A Glass Bottle

Interesting Effect of Superglue on the inside of the glass bottle after a week.






fixed1t

How To Sharpen Hair Tweezers

Are your body hair tweezers blunt and no longer grabbing your, eyebrows, ear hair, nasal hair, body hair or pubic hair?  The here is how to sharpen them to get them working perfectly.



Please leave comments, 1+ and share



Thanks fixed1t

Dyson DC39 Emptying Revisited - The Missing Grey Button?

Reply to viewer comments on my first Dyson CD39 video, yo read about it in the blog entry

click on this link:

After further research into what viewers were saying, I created this new video, which I think confirms the fixed1t solution in my first video is the best. ;-)



fixed1t

Preventing Superglue Drying Out Experiment - 16 days Then I Got Careless

My Super Glue Experiment (click here to what the video) 

was going great, then I got careless and a bit lazy ;-)




I think in principle it works.

Please let me know if you try it and it works.

fixed1t

How To Make Things With Polymorph Low Melt Plastic

A lot of items we buy these days are made from really brittle plastic they snaps to bends under pressure or normal use.

However,  from the prosthetic and hand made robot field comes a really nice material that is:

Quick to prepare
Safe to use
Strong and flexible
Re-usuable when you get it wrong
Cheap to buy
Safe to keep
Bio degradable

What is the Super Material?  They call it Polymorph.

What is Polymorph?

Polymorph is a thermoplastic polymer that melts at around 62°C.  Its generally supplied as small off white plastic granules. Polymorph is non-toxic and completely biodegradable. Suppliers also tend to supply a range of  coloured powder additives if you want to colour it, or it can be painted.

How do I use Polymorph ?

• Heat water to just over 65 degrees
• Add the opaque white pellets to the water 
• Leave the pellets in the water till they turn transparent
• Remove the pellets from the water and mould by hand
• add colour if required)
• Allow the Polymorph to cool , it will turn white and solid
• Re-heat if further moulding is required

Its also very cheap, and if you screw up using it, you just chuck it back into a cup of hot water and start again, its that simple.

Click Here To Get A Great Price On eBay For Polymorph

How To Make Things With Polymorph Low Melt Plastic

#fixed1tMONEYSAVINGtips

Composting Leaves With Minimal Effort

Cut the time and effort out of composting your leaves.







Thanks for watching, please leave comments and check out my other blogs.



fixed1t